Galaxy Fantasy
by Buddhacide
Summary: A woman and boy turned l'Cie. The leader of the Autobots. The daughter of Galactus. Led by Optimus Prime, Galaxy Force is an unlikely and futuristic superhero team that fights epic threats. Stranded on Earth, can Lightning and Hope find their answers?
1. Chapter 1: Feel Our Power

**Galaxy Fantasy**

A cross-company crack fanfiction

Final Fantasy XIII vs. Transformers vs. Marvel Comics

Author's note: Welcome to "Galaxy Fantasy". This story is does not involve only Final Fantasy XIII characters and Transformers, although the story settings might mislead one to think so. It's about action and explosions and crazy powers. It's intended to have emotion and humour. But most of all, it's intended to be fun. Whether it works, we'll see. Thanks for checking out this experiment of mine.

Unfortunately, due to the time constraints imposed by my other commitments, I've realized I can't write long story arcs in any sustained way (I tried to do so with Evening Star and Futurescapes, and it is no surprise that they are still on hiatus). So while this story obviously has a plot, direction, and an eventual ending, chapters will be largely contained in themselves (like episodes from a Saturday morning cartoon), largely for my own benefit but perhaps for readers' as well.

"Galaxy Fantasy" is about an unlikely, futuristic and interspecies team of superheroes. Founded by Autobot leader Optimus Prime, Galaxy Force is dedicated to the protection of the universe against its most powerful threats. Each member is the representative of a planet or cosmic aspect. From its satellite base, Orbital Terminus, Galaxy Force fights as one proactive force to protect all beings from the greatest threats in the multiverse.

Disclaimer: I am using the Western equivalents of Japanese terms for this story (it's always been a tricky story with Transformers and Final Fantasy XIII). I apologize if you're more used to the Japanese names. Finally, the Transformers' incarnations are those that appear in the upcoming game, _War for Cybertron_.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Feel Our Power**

The newly built star station was modelled after the spacecraft that carried the first Transformers to Earth. Within its central chamber stood a tall, majestic robot, whose red, blue and silver body shone from the screens around him. Each monitor displayed an individual hotspot on the globe. On the continent of South America, a vicious battle was raging between two Norse gods: one who wielded a mythic hammer of lightning and thunder, and another whose fiendish grin seemed to embody mischief itself. Elsewhere in Europe, genetically modified monsters emerged from untraceable portals and began to wander various towns and cities, hungry for something warm-blooded. And in the blasted streets of Shanghai, the Autobots Ratchet and Ironhide were bogged down in a devastating street fight against a tide of Decepticon drones.

Evil was everywhere.

_The suns and worlds cry out for protection_, thought Optimus Prime to himself. Thoughtful optical sensors glimmered cerulean lights. _The universe calls for more than what I can achieve by myself. I owe something greater to all sentient beings. I owe it to all who dwell on this blue planet of organic life. I have a duty to preserve their freedom from the countless threats that stalk the galaxies._

The Autobot commander drew himself up, his signature faceplate concealing part of his serious expression.

_The Autobots cannot protect the world alone, and they shouldn't. No one is an island. _

_That is why I commissioned this space base for a new team that will take proactive measures to protect this world. Each member will represent a planet or an aspect of the universe, and all of us will be unified in our shared objective – to protect Earth. _

_This is Orbital Terminus._

_My name is Optimus Prime, and I am the founder of Galaxy Force_.

He lifted himself from his heavy meditation and laid a careful hand on the central supercomputer, Teletraan One. He cocked his helmed head as he felt a presence behind him. He did not need to look to know who it was. _The first member of my team has arrived_, he thought to himself.

"Welcome to your new base of operations," he said, turning around. He raised a hand in greeting. "And thank you for accepting my invitation to join Galaxy Force."

The girl was exquisitely beautiful, with a slender, lithe figure and flowing long hair as dark as the infinity of space. Prime's optical sensors could detect a massive, four-armed machine behind her, regulating internal energies that dated back to the Big Bang. The device was cloaked by a force field she had created so as to keep her true and shocking identity a secret.

Her most arresting physical features were her starry purple eyes, which emanated an otherworldly pink light. Those deep violet irises shone with the power of the constellations. Her pupils were blacker than supermassive black holes. And reflected in them were the death of the previous universe… and the birth of the present one.

_The Power Cosmic_…

It was all the more incredible that this semi-abstract being was wearing what urban humans would call "yuppie" clothes – figure-hugging jeans, a white t-shirt, and a pair of chic sunglasses that she slipped off in the name of politeness.

"I guess I'm in the right place," she giggled nervously. "I've never been asked to be part of a superhero team before. I guess that's probably because I look at everyone like assortments from a scrumptious planetary buffet," she added sadly. She was enormously thankful that her new leader technically did not possess biomass, and hence was of no nutritious interest to her. Having inherited her father's appetite, she needed to continuously feed on bio-matter, but her self-imposed vow to protect Earth was depriving her of an extremely nourishing and accessible meal.

But Prime seemed to understand. "I invited you, daughter of Galactus, because I know about your predicament. You've sworn to protect the beings on this planet, despite having a natural yearning to devour it. Your heart is pure and your cause is just. And although your strength must be fluctuating, it still surpasses anything I've ever seen. It could easily turn the tide against Megatron and anyone else that threatens Earth."

The young woman (or the transcendent being that manifested in the form of one) scratched her head, laughing in embarrassment. "Well, it's not a big step," she said modestly. "I mean, I spend most of my time scrounging off aliens that latch onto this planet's ecosystems, but in human terms, that's like scavenging for bread crumbs. It's just not enough. I gotta say, I have a pretty selfish reason for joining up – " She gave Prime a pleading look. "You already know I'm not like my father, so… I just wanna say, I actually have a conscience, and I love Earth. The whole planet is a delectable banquet to me, but I've made a promise to protect it! If you can find more invaders for me to nourish myself with… I'll do anything."

She blinked. "You wanted me on your team because you knew I wouldn't see you as food."

"Don't forget that not all your teammates will be Cybertronians. I recruited you first because were very easy to contact, thanks to your popular Twitter account," said Prime. "At first, I consulted Teletraan One, because I was certain your location was above top secret. But then I started using the Internet after I tracked your presence to a civilian website. Your Tweeting has so many hits; I ended up sending a standard e-mail to reach you."

"So you basically got to me through mobile web? Oh, right," said Galacta sheepishly. She glanced up at one of the screens that surrounded them, and at her telepathic command, it switched to her flamboyant account homepage. It displayed a blurb about herself, her most recent Tweet, and a profile picture with a header:

_GALI_GIRL_

_Name: Gali_

_Location: Earth_

_Bio: Has a major in food issues, with a minor in daddy issues (or vice versa, depending on the time of day)_

_109 following_

_230 followers_

_1762 updates_

_Finally! Someone asked me to join a TEAM! O.o Look out, X-Men! Guess who's my new boss… everyone's fav bot, the fab Optimus Prime! I just hope I'm not going EAT my new teammates… I'm starved as it is… that's something I'm really worried about!1_

_about 10 minutes ago from mobile web _

"You told your followers about my plan?" said Prime, dumbfounded.

She looked excited as he stared at the display. "So you wanna keep up with my Tweets?" she said eagerly. Apparently, not even semi-omnipotent entities could resist the fun of online social networking. "I'll sign you up myself, so don't worry about your account. Oh, I forgot to mention – I'm happy to provide Orbital Terminus with any technology it needs. My toys outclass pretty much anything your enemies can throw at you. Just sayin'."

"That will be appreciated. I named Galaxy Force after the power you have, which will be combined with that of your teammates," said Prime. "In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before the Autobots would need help in holding back the Decepticons." He pressed a button on Teletraan One. "Look at all the hotspots around the planet," he prompted. "Something sinister is taking hold of Earth. And I'm not sure who's behind it all."

The screen to his far right beeped, displaying a mob of fleeing humans that were running past the Autobot hero Bumblebee. Amidst a gory scene of scattered corpses, the yellow robot kept his optics on a shining mass of brilliance, which lashed out with two whip-like appendages of light. Shocked at its speed, Bumblebee fired his plasma cannon, but mysterious being had already smashed its appendages against the Cybertronian, sending him smashing into a building and enveloping him in choking smoke. Bumblebee scrambled up, but the white light was already upon him, beating him relentlessly with the whips of white-hot heat.

Prime closed his optics, his face grim.

"We need reinforcements… everywhere. But I just don't have enough Autobots to assign across this planet. As you can see, they're struggling against these beings that appeared three days ago. They're powerful," he mused. "From Jetfire's analysis, it's obvious they're not Cybertronian life forms. Yet their molecular structure seems similar to mechanical beings, built around a crystal at the core of their anatomy. They can control the elements amongst other various abilities. And they don't die the same way organic beings do."

Silence.

"Galacta?" said Prime, turning around.

His concerned expression, however, quickly changed to one of embarrassment.

Galactic drool was sliding down the woman's chin, and her eyes had glazed over in anticipation as she stared fixatedly at the unfolding battle on the monitor. It took several seconds for her to realize that Prime was looking at her. She quickly wiped her mouth, losing her dreamy expression. "Uh. Right. Well, I was just thinking, Optimus. These organisms are what my Earthen menu's been lacking all this time." She smacked her lips, groaning in hunger. "Superpowered beings with biomass… that's like, twelve gigacalories multiplied by twenty for the same size. And best of all, I know why my semi-omniscient consciousness didn't detect these fal'Cie before."

Prime paused. "Fal'Cie?"

"These beings are not native to this world," explained Galacta. "They're inhabitants of a different dimension altogether. It only took me a few seconds to memorize the composition of the reality they come from. It's like… a mirror world, with a floating continent called Cocoon, with a wild realm called Gran Pulse lying below it. I can sense that there are two kinds of fal'Cie, but I'm not sure why. I need to expand my consciousness across the realities to encompass Cocoon and Pulse, but that will take time. We need information from insiders."

She nodded appreciatively. "Well, whatever. Two things are for sure: these guys aren't indigenous bioforms of Earth. Ergo: they're a new item on my _carte du jour_." She laughed gleefully, clasping her hands like a besotted teen in love. "I am not a amoral slave to my own hunger, unlike a certain un-fatherly someone. But I knew joining you would be a good chance to nourish myself while doing what I do best."

Prime's optics glinted. "Galacta, you're my last line of defence. I'm sure these new enemies will make for a relatively satisfying meal. Now it's time to take the next step. You represent an aspect of the universe that is unfathomably deep, but ultimately benevolent. I represent the planet of Cybertron. But we've just begun. There are several more members to recruit."

Galacta brushed back her dark hair. "What do you want to do now?"

"I want to find suitable emissaries who can fight these fal'Cie alongside us," replied Prime, "and I think Teletraan One has already identified them." He glanced back at his new ally. "Can you do me a favour and teleport me to London?"

She shrugged. "Sure thing."

* * *

The skies were still blue above the capital of the United Kingdom.

Big Ben had collapsed under the concussive force of Starscream's Null Ray. The Decepticon Air Commander looked outward toward the flames that were consuming London, and he smiled. "The space bridge worked perfectly," he said to himself. "Divide and conquer is a key principle in waging an intelligent war. Even a pathetic human like Doctor Doom understands that. Yet you don't, great leader Megatron," he muttered. "You don't appreciate the subtleties that make an ugly thing like war into something beautiful." He smiled at the humans that scattered like ants on the ground below. "My frequencies detect unfamiliar, chaotic wavelengths that are neither Earthen nor Cybertronian. I will finish this wreck of a metropolis, before investigating for myself the potential of these new arrivals."

His forearm cannon gathered renewed power, and a stream of energy screamed towards a mob of confused and terrified humans. The shattered ground shook, and Starscream felt elation in his spark at the shrieks of the flesh-beings. Like ants wriggling in a fire, they twisted and shrivelled as the implosion consumed them and left nothing behind. Starscream grinned as he lowered his hand, but his pleasure was cut short. He looked closer at the aftermath of his attack.

Two humans had survived. And they were uninjured.

"What? Was my Null Ray actually blocked?" he confirmed quietly, staring down at the duo at the epicentre of the explosion. "Who are you?" he shouted, demanding an answer from the pair below. "You are no ordinary human scum!"

A crimson cape billowed in the smoke-choked wind as Starscream's challenger stared up at him. She was beautiful and stern-faced woman, with long pink hair that fell over her left shoulder. Her outfit betrayed her military origins. It consisted of a tight white vest that covered a brown turtleneck, accompanied by a necklace with a lightning bolt-shaped pendant. In contrast to her right side, her left arm was wrapped in a black sleeve, and a green plate with two gold stripes concealed her left shoulder. A short brown skirt and belt completed her costume. A pair of rugged boots covered her otherwise bare legs.

Her blue eyes glinted angrily as she pushed back her trembling companion. He was a short boy with distinctive silver hair and haunting green eyes. His orange and yellow coat, along with his green pants, was caked in soot. The woman had used her weapon to shield him from the fatal fire.

"You can sit this one out, Hope," she muttered.

"… Okay, Lightning," replied the boy hesitantly, clutching at his emerald scarf with a gloved hand.

Starscream's optics widened as his systems scanned the exotic weapon in the woman's hand. It took several seconds for the data to match equivalent words in the Cybertronian language. The result sounded rather chilling and bizarre.

_Weapon class: Gunblade. Name: Blazefire Saber_.

"A transforming sword? Impossible," he snapped. "How can a human possibly use that?"

Lightning's gunblade was a weapon only the best soldiers on Cocoon were privileged with. "Ever since we fell through that bridge of light, we've been running non-stop from fal'Cie and these unknown beasts," she whispered. "I don't know where Snow and Sazh are, but you're not touching Hope, you oversized piece of scrap." She did not even acknowledge Starscream's indignant expression as she observed this new alien world – a world that still was populated by humans.

_But how could these robotic fal'Cie have brought us here? Are they even fal'Cie_? she thought to herself.

"Die!" shrieked Starscream suddenly, firing his Null Ray again. Hope scrambled for cover as Lightning was hurled upwards by the force of the blast, which sent debris hurtling into the sky. Having activated her Grav-con Unit, her gloved hands clenched her gunblade as she leaped between the falling chunks of concrete and metal, launching off them to propel her towards Starscream. Her physical strength was superhuman, her speed was astonishing, and her relatively tiny size gave her a distinct advantage as her forbidding eyes met his shocked optics.

"You'll pay for trying to shoot Hope," she snarled.

"Impossible!" he cried. "That a human could confront me like this – "

Lightning disappeared, and before Starscream could notice her movements, she was carving a furious flurry of gashes across his face, taking advantage of her momentum to do as much damage as possible before gravity did its work. Painful explosions erupting from his nose and mouth, Starscream attempted to swat her away with an enraged backhand. Lightning's reflexes saved her life, and sparks flew from Blazefire Saber as she fell from the heavens. Blood trailing from her lip, she gritted her teeth, bracing herself for a very sore back.

"And stay down, worm," snarled Starscream, rubbing his dark helm. Smoke and fire were trailing from his facial wounds.

"Lightning!" cried Hope, as she breakfell along the ground, rolling back up quickly to minimize the shock rattling her body. He ran over to help her. "Are you okay?" he whispered. She would have collapsed back down were it not for his steadying hands. She glared up at the hovering robot. She had inflicted some pain on him, but it was not enough. She began to wonder how many more attacks she could withstand before he inevitably wore her down.

"I can't take him down," she growled. "Not by myself – "

An abrupt flash of purple light blinded her. A pink and violet gate randomly exploded into existence several yards away from her, and she embraced Hope instinctively as a large but streamlined vehicle began to emerge from it. _Everything is happening too quickly_! she thought wildly. A red and blue truck was already rumbling past her, launching into the air, and…

"What the…" she mumbled in disbelief, her jaw relaxing slightly.

There was no other word for it: the truck was _transforming_.

Hope stared up at the vehicle as metal plates shifted, slid, and came together, rearranging themselves before his eyes. Red, blue and silver intermingled, forming a heavy body of armour around a huge frame with limbs. The front nose of the vehicle slid into the centre of converting shoulderplates and legs, forming a broad chest as hands emerged from strong arms. Its face, complete with a platinum mouthplate and a martial blue helmet, was the last to emerge.

The robot landed, skidding across the concrete violently and coming to a halt.

"I'm a friend," it growled briskly, much to the l'Cie's shock. "Let me help you."

The talking robot's azure optics shone as he drew a rifle the size of a tree – an ion blaster – and fired repeatedly at an astounded Starscream, piercing his chest and puncturing his leg. Rocked by explosions across his body, the Decepticon fell from the sky and collided with the ruins of a building. "_PRIME_!" he shrieked in hate as he crash-landed gracelessly. His cries only grew louder as he met the ground, humbled by a being of flesh and her unexpected reinforcement.

"There's no time to waste," cried the robot with a blue helmet. "Let's follow through!"

Instinctively, Lightning sprinted towards Starscream, who was struggling up. He launched himself into the air again, but Lightning's Grav-con Unit sent her careening upwards to meet his speed. Before he could transform into a fighter jet and flee, she swung her weapon against his helm in a wide, ferocious arc.

"You aimed your cannon at Hope. And I told you you'd pay!" she roared, above the whining screech.

The Decepticon gurgled helplessly as the gunblade ripped into his head, tearing out several circuits and revealing pulsing, purple Energon. Lightning somersaulted back and descended back to Earth as Prime fired three devastating shots, orbs of ion smashing into Starscream and crushing his body even as he hastily transformed into a wreck of a vehicle mode. Swearing incoherently to himself, the Air Commander shot away in a sonic boom, leaving the unlikely allies standing together amidst the rubble of London.

* * *

"I want answers," barked an exhausted Lightning. Hope was safe, but she did not feel any more relaxed than before. "Who was that? And who are you?"

"My name is Optimus Prime. I am an Autobot, an autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron." He lowered a knee to the ground, looking down at the young woman and younger boy. "We just chased away a Decepticon, evil counterparts to the Autobots. That one is called Starscream, and he is extremely dangerous. You must be careful when you engage him. And this planet you're on is called Earth." He blinked slowly. "What are your names?"

"Hope Estheim," said the boy meekly, after a moment of awkward silence. "And her name is Lightning – "

"Optimus Prime? Earth? Is this some kind of joke?" said the pink-haired warrior suspiciously. She did not lower her gunblade. "We fell through a bridge of light, and we've been fighting and fleeing non-stop since we landed here. First PSICOM, now this?"

"I am not of this planet, either," said Prime. "But Earth is my home. I protect it from the villains you just fought. And please calm down," he added, noticing Lightning's heavy, erratic breathing. He pressed his metallic temple, and two light beams shot from his optics and moved across Lightning's body. "Your body, although not one hundred percent human, is still organic. It requires at least some rest. From what my scanners tell me, you're not severely injured, but any more battles and your body could fall apart."

Hope was gingerly supporting Lightning's waist. "Op… Optimus," he spoke up, looking at the Autobot. "Do you know where we can find shelter?"

"I came from a space station called Orbital Terminus to help you. I would be honoured if you would agree to come with me. I am the leader of the Autobots, and Orbital Terminus is the base of operations for a new team called Galaxy Force."

Lightning grasped Hope's shoulder. At first, he thought that she was angry, but then he realized that what she was feeling was uncertainty.

"My friend Galacta has told me about you… about your kind. I don't understand everything, but I do know this: Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," urged Prime gravely. He offered his hand. "And that goes for l'Cie like you and Hope. Fate rarely calls us at a moment of our choosing. I'm in the dark about your present struggle, but I do hope you can honour me with your story."

Silence passed between Autobot and l'Cie for several moments.

"Fine," said Lightning at last, breathing heavily to release her suppressed distress. "I'll trust you… this time. Try anything, and I'll slice you apart."

She placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and pulled him close. "Take us to your command centre."

Prime closed his optics. _Did you hear that, Galacta_?

_Yup_, came her telepathic reply, and the three allies vanished in a blaze of purple fire.

* * *

Earth had completed a full rotation around its mother star by the time Optimus had introduced Earth to Lightning. She hadn't smiled since being teleported to Orbital Terminus, although Hope was still wide-eyed with boyish awe. He had never witnessed Cybertronian technology before. Being with Prime and Galacta was enough for him to realize that he was in the presence of legendary beings. The daughter of the World Eater had a grim expression on her face for the entire conversation. Though the l'Cie would make nutritious fare, she was determined to keep them safe – from their enemies and from herself, too. Still, for Hope, to meet fellow aliens actually felt safer than encountering Earthen humans. For all he and Lightning knew, the humans of this planet could have been in league with PSICOM and the Sanctum.

Prime had concluded by outlining his plans for Galaxy Force to the l'Cie. He had extended an offer of membership to them, inviting them to become founding teammates alongside himself and Galacta.

Lightning still felt wary of the overall situation, however. "I've told you our story. We're still not sure how we tumbled through that bridge of light. That's the only way I can describe it. I lost consciousness until Hope shook me awake. We fled across the city we had landed in, clashing with various monsters like that… Decepticon. In any case, our current problems on Cocoon are complicated. I'm not sure if we need to tell you about them right now. What's needed is to fight off the enemies that are streaming from the bridges of light that have opened on our world."

"Patience," said Prime. "Though my spark grieves for every life that is lost on this planet, we cannot achieve our objectives if we charge in without a plan." He paused. "Those bridges you're referring to are called spacebridges, a Cybertronian means of planetary transport. I'm suspicious as to why they're appearing on your world, which leads me to suspect, naturally, my nemesis Megatron. All in all, this is a mystery to me."

He rubbed the ridge of his metallic nose. "This planet is host to many alien species, including Cybertronians. But it has never seen l'Cie before. I can't tell if your associates will follow you through the spacebridges that you fell through, but I know that your chances to find your answers will be stronger if you fight with allies. Allies like the Autobots and Galacta."

Hope gave a slow nod. "I trust you," he said, looking up at Prime.

"Hope," chastised Lightning, frustrated by his openness and honesty. She hated appearing vulnerable, yet the boy had exercised a mysterious power over her ever since they began their adventures together. He looked up at her, and she could not help falling quiet. Their eyes met, and his silence spoke volumes.

_What have we got to lose? Everyone's gone, at least for now. We need allies on this planet. We need to find out what's going on. I don't want you to overreach yourself for me_, he thought desperately.

Prime nodded at the former Guardian Corps soldier. "I promise you. We will find the answers we seek together, as an army of one. Will you join Galacta and me?"

Lightning's cold blue eyes did not lose their cautious gleam. But her words were what Hope wanted to hear.

"Count us in."

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I hope it was exciting. Constructive criticism and feedback is appreciated. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the newest characters in this crossover, here are their bios. Also, I'm not an expert in Final Fantasy XIII lore. My apologies for any mistakes.

Lightning (Claire Farron)

Series: Final Fantasy XIII

Representing: Cocoon/Earth

Bio: Estranged from her sister and isolated from the possibility of friendship with other human beings, Lightning leads a cursed, violent life as a l'Cie, a being marked with the destiny of oblivion by a Pulse fal'Cie. The first qualities that others notice in her are coldness, distance, and even belligerence. But several individuals (such as Serah and Hope) have demonstrated that she possesses another face: one of care, of protectiveness, and dedication to the task of opposing the injustices of Cocoon and the Sanctum. All her plans are brought to a sudden halt, however, when she falls through a "bridge of light" with Hope, losing contact with Sazh as she finds herself on a war-torn planet called Earth. Attacked from all sides by new, unknown foes, Lightning finds an ally in the noble Autobots and gains new resolve to foil the conspiracy of the fal'Cie and protect Cocoon and Earth. Determined to keep Hope by her side, she joins Galaxy Force and becomes a founding member of the new team of superheroes.

Powers: Lightning is a warrior with a formidable mastery of several different powers that make her possibly the deadliest foreign fighter on Earth. Her weapon is the gunblade, an extremely diverse weapon that has yet to exhibit its full potential. An expert swordfighter, her agility is complemented by her Grav-con Unit, a military device that controls gravity. By activating imprints on her left thumb and index finger, she can perform outrageous acrobatics and escape feats that should be impossible for human beings. She is an aggressive and competent tactician, combining wits, speed, strength and magic to destroy her foes. Her Eidolon is Odin. The extent of her l'Cie abilities is currently unknown.

* * *

Hope Estheim

Series: Final Fantasy XIII

Representing: Cocoon/Earth

Bio: Innocence. Naïve courage. Devotion. Hope Estheim embodies these qualities as Lightning's unofficial sidekick and most intimate friend. But a dark uncertainty about himself and his place in Cocoon lurks within this boy as he comes to grips with his initial hatred of Snow and his growing attachment to Lightning, who took him under his wing after an initial confrontation. Depending on this otherwise withdrawn woman for guidance and strength, Hope slowly grows in inner fortitude until he is able to stand alongside her as a true partner. He despises war and confrontation, but since meeting Lightning, he has learned to gradually master his fears and inner weaknesses. He once sought revenge, but now he understands that his role and his fight is part of something much bigger. After falling through the mysterious "bridge of light", he is left wondering where Snow and Vanille could be. With the memory of his deceased mother burnt into his consciousness, he accepts the invitation to join Galaxy Force without hesitation.

Powers: Physically weak compared to Lightning, Hope is nevertheless a skilled long-range fighter with his futuristic boomerangs and magical powers. His boomerangs can hit multiple enemies, keeping them at bay from a distance. He is an accomplished spellcaster, especially in the sphere of healing, and his Eidolon is called Alexander. The extents of his l'Cie abilities are currently unknown and his potential is something to be feared.

* * *

Optimus Prime

Series: Transformers

Representing: Cybertron

Bio: Leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime has devoted his life to protecting the dignity and freedom of all sentient beings. Courageous and admired by many, he is guided by his sense of justice and righteousness, which is always governed by his compassion and care for others. He founded Galaxy Force after he realized that his Autobots were not enough to stop hostile forces attacking Earth. A mentor figure to the team, Prime believes that the key to success is an unqualified faith in the strengths of different beings. With the help of Autobot builders, he established Orbital Terminus, a satellite station a quarter of the moon's size, which serves as a base of operations for the Wardens. With his newfound friends and the support of his Autobots, Prime is determined to stop any threat to Earth, including that of his archenemy, Megatron.

Powers: Optimus is the greatest Autobot warrior of his generation, having honed his robot and vehicle modes to extreme limits in power and endurance. As the founder and unofficial leader of Galaxy Force, he is the team's strategist and operations coordinator. He does not hesitate to join the fray when necessary, and is a daunting ranged and close-quarters combatant. His ion blaster is his signature weapon, and he wields a Double Energon Axe that can cut through matter of any kind. He also has the advantage of a large truck mode, which he uses to travel long distances.

* * *

Galacta

Series: Marvel Comics

Representing: The previous universe

Bio: The most powerful member of Galaxy Force, Galacta is the daughter of the fabled World Eater, Galactus. Possessing powers on a semi-abstract scale, "Gali" is the final line of defence against cosmic threats. She began life as an anomalous energy field from her father's molecules, but takes the form of a lithe, black-haired young woman with starry purple eyes. On Earth, she spends most of her time Tweeting. Her cheerful and lively personality hides a never-ending hunger that she directs against invading aliens rather than her adopted planet. Unlike her categorically amoral father, Galacta is decidedly moral, proud of her conscience, and refuses to devour Earth just to satiate her appetite. When her friends are struggling, she dons her famous purple armour to unleash the Power Cosmic upon Earth's aggressors!

Powers: Galacta wields the Power Cosmic and is capable of a vast array of astonishing powers. These include molecular restructuring of all kinds of matter, the teleportation of objects across time, space, and dimensions, size-alteration, projecting energy with planet-crushing force, the erection of diverse force fields, the instantaneous creation of portals across the multiverse and other dimensions, telepathy and telekinesis, unstoppable mind-control, and limited cosmic awareness. Her mere presence can alter the immediate surroundings, blurring the lines between imagination and reality. She has also learned to imbue her friends with a fraction of the Power Cosmic, effectively making them her own Heralds. It is rumoured that her true form is that of a humanoid star.

Due to her constant hunger, she is not omnipotent. She needs to wear armour during battle to regulate her energy. As such, her power is not consistent. She is not invulnerable to the power or trickery of non-abstract beings. To make things worse, she cannot help seeing all her friends and the entire Earth as a delicious meal.


	2. Chapter 2: The Bridge of Light

Author's note: Welcome to the second chapter of "Galaxy Fantasy", a story about an unlikely, interspecies team of super-guardians. Feedback and reviews are appreciated. If you like this story, I would like to know what you enjoy about it so I can write more of the same and shore up my weaknesses.

This superhero tale is centred on Lightning, a l'Cie fighter from the world of Cocoon/Gran Pulse. Falling through a mysterious spacebridge and landing on a planet called Earth, she and Hope find themselves in the care of Optimus Prime, the noble and compassionate leader of the Autobots. Recruited into his new team, Galaxy Force, Lightning resolves to uncover the mystery of the spacebridge that brought her here, which might very well be part of a far-reaching conspiracy to conquer the worlds of Cocoon, Cybertron, and Earth…

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Bridge of Light**

Although robots had constructed Orbital Terminus, facilities for organic life forms ("organics" in Cybertronian slang) were included in the blueprint from the beginning. A mess hall, rooms with comfortable beds and bathrooms, even an entertainment lounge and meditation room – the space station's architect, Jetfire, had been meticulous in his planning. Because of its massive size, however, the place still felt slightly empty. Only three of the bedrooms had been occupied so far, which were located in the western wing. The new residents now consisted of two l'Cie and a world-eating entity. Only time would tell who else caught Optimus Prime's optic as a potential member of Galaxy Force.

Several hours had passed since any activity had occurred. It took some time for Lightning and Hope to recover from their exhaustion, but Prime understood, and left them to their rest. It was no doubt disorienting to be wrenched from one dimension and jettisoned in a new one.

The titanium door to Room 1B hissed and glided open, revealing a refreshed young woman whose struggle pitted her against Cocoon's ruling institution: the Sanctum.

Wearing a short white skirt and tee, the barefoot Lightning allowed herself a quiet sigh, ruffling through her damp hair with a soft towel. Her forefinger pressed absently against the l'Cie mark just above her breasts. Taking a shower felt good after a dreamless doze. Both felt even better after her gruelling battle against the Decepticon Starscream. The towel's neutral texture was gentle and welcoming – not like the cold steel of her weapons or the smoky stink of the battles she waged on Cocoon.

She walked out into the sterilized corridor, hearing the distressed crying of a woman. She looked to her right and noticed the ebony-haired, purple-eyed being wandering towards her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her nose was terribly swelled up.

"Galacta, was it?" confirmed the former Guardian Corps soldier.

"Yeah," sniffled Galacta in reply.

Her pace quickening, she suddenly threw herself at Lightning and wrapped her in an abrupt hug. The mortal released a sharp gasp of pain, for while Galacta was not much taller than her, her strength felt heavy and monstrous, with the suppressed weight of entire stars behind it. Shocked and angered, the l'Cie struggled to tear away, but Galacta held on like her life depended on it.

"What the hell are you doing? Get off me!" demanded Lightning furiously.

Galacta rambled out a reply as she clutched at the warrior, staring into her eyes ravenously. "You're so delicious, but I can't eat you. I won't eat you!" she blubbered. "I can smell your molecules right now, how nourishing your gigacalories would be. That's the truth, and it's so hard to suppress my appetite because I know what I am, I know what I need. It's just awful. I hate this fight, but I need to be strong… stronger than daddy, at least."

"Get _off_!" barked Lightning in sudden fear, finally succeeding in pushing the invasive female away.

Galacta staggered back, wiping her face with a clumsy hand. "I won't lose to my hunger. I will protect you everyone else. I promise," she bawled.

"Fine. But I don't know what you expect me to do!" cried Lightning in frustration, rubbing her sore arms vigorously. Galacta gave a loud wail and fled; running away and retreating to her own bedroom down the corridor.

_So this the struggle of the World Eater's offspring_, thought Lightning to herself. For a moment, she felt a surge of relief that she hadn't been devoured there and then.

Before she could swear, the door next to her slid open, and a sleepy-eyed Hope peered out. "Light," he said softly. "Why were you guys yelling?"

"Prime already warned me about Galacta's issues, but I'm still getting used to living with her. I guess I don't have much of a choice now," she replied, shaking her head in a slight daze. She turned to look at the boy, her aquamarine eyes meeting his gaze. "Did she wake you up?"

"No. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Go back to bed," she demanded, her voice unconsciously softening.

Hope smiled gently. He didn't come out into the corridor. "We've been sleeping for the past few hours. So much has happened since we fell through the bridge of light. I thought talking about it could help."

"I don't need you to worry about me, kid," sighed Lightning, although she couldn't hold back a pleased smirk.

"Oh, and don't you remember?" asked Hope. "Optimus wants to give us a mission briefing in fifteen minutes. I'm going to get ready now. You're coming, right?"

Lightning shrugged. "I suppose so. It's been chaos ever since we came to Earth. I want to get down to the bottom of all this. It's not like we were problem-free on Cocoon. And now we've got these other enemies to deal with."

She paused for several moments, mindful of the fact that he was still looking at her. "Why did you agree?" she murmured suddenly, a strange feeling arising in her chest.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why were you so eager to join Galaxy Force? You know how we've both been manipulated before. And…" Lightning stopped herself, before pressing on hesitantly. "I know you better than Prime or Galacta. The same goes for Sazh and Vanille, too. I don't see how any of them could look out for you better than I can."

"_That_ was what troubled you?" said Hope quietly, his smile broadening. "I just don't want you bearing our burdens by yourself. I've asked so much of you already. Besides, I think it's a good thing to trust Optimus. I'm not sure why, but I just know we'll be able to find our answers with him. It's been a long time since I could trust someone apart from you. That's something really important to me."

She didn't quite know how to respond except with a nod. Secretly, she felt glad that she was wrong about his motivations for joining the team. She stepped back into her room, embarrassed that she felt jealous over a fourteen-year-old youngster.

"I'll meet you out here in a few minutes," she said, and her door slid shut.

* * *

The dimly illuminated hall was hundreds of metres high, with ancient Cyberglyphs etched along its walls. In the centre stood a beautiful, spectacled woman, whose radiant blonde hair reached down to her knees. Her attire was magnificently elegant, with a dark, light-patterned coat that boasted a buxom frame embraced by a dark uniform with stockings and high-heeled shoes. Her insignia boasted of her high rank among the Sanctum's officers. Although she had a smile on her face, it was a smirk of cruelty.

She was flanked by two towering robots who cast shadows several dozen yards long. From their aerodynamic bodies, it was safe to assume that their vehicle modes were Cybertronian fighter jets. "The arrogant Starscream has disappeared, but you remain loyal to my new Emperor, Thundercracker and Skywarp. The forces of PSICOM are unified under one commander and one purpose. The extermination of the l'Cie will be completed. As for all the humans of Earth, their unofficial Focus is obvious."

Thundercracker and Skywarp looked at each other, sharing a devious grin between them. Below their massive forms, PSICOM units were beginning to assemble. The sinister company consisted of several different ranks, including that of Ranger, Warden, and Raider. Every one of those soldiers obeyed the most casual order from the cloaked woman.

_She's perfect_, thought Thundercracker elatedly.

Her sultry voice continued to echo through the mysterious chamber. "Their one and only purpose is to serve our Emperor's vision. And there is only one use for you, rebel of Earth! You and other pretenders to power will be disposed of," she proclaimed, motioning with an imperious hand.

Two PSICOM Enforcers emerged from the shadows, constraining a frothing, middle-aged man in an Italian-tailored suit. He was a truly pathetic sight, stripped of his weapons and his bodyguards. His black tie was stained with blood, and several teeth had been bashed out of his trembling mouth. The soldiers pushed him to the ground, and his knees banged into the concrete. His skin flushed green, and he began to enter a seizure, helplessly struggling against his Energon-charged handcuffs.

"Any last words, Iron Patriot? Or should I say, Norman Osborn?" snickered Thundercracker.

"Stab him in his organic heart!" bellowed Skywarp, laughing. "He can hide in a tin can all he wants, but he can't become a true Cybertronian like us!"

"The benefactors of the Sanctum have spoken," cried the beauty, who seemed to share a degree of authority with the Decepticons. "And they have willed a just death!" Without any further delay, she raised her baton and pierced into Osborn's pounding heart with a single savage thrust. The once-feared supervillain gasped and crumpled to the ground, run through by the woman's weapon.

"Good work, Jihl Nabaat! Bring out the next rebel who dared to resist us!" cried Skywarp.

More soldiers emerged, shoving down a man in a dark blue military uniform. His hair was predominantly brown, but the sides of his mop were white. He had evidently put up a valiant struggle, and his eyepatch had been torn off, revealing a sightless eyeball. Cybertronium chains tightly bound his arms and he glared up at the smug PSICOM commander. She raised her baton offhandedly. "You must be the one who is well-versed in the art of war," observed Jihl. "We could use your resources. But if you will not bow before me, then you might as well be useless. For I am the Emperor's emissary, his queen."

"My name is Nicholas Fury," snarled the bleeding man in contempt, "and you're getting nothing from me or S.H.I.E.L.D, you crazy bitch."

He raised his head and spat at Jihl. The gleam in her eyes intensified as she observed the spittle trailing down her leg. The Enforcers moved to kick and beat Fury, but she held up a hand, her hand gripping her baton tightly. "Let these men's deaths serve as evidence for Decepticon supremacy. Powered by the crystals, the true rulers of Cybertron will remake Earth and Cocoon in my Emperor's image."

Jihl held up a slender hand, smiling elegantly as her spectacles shone with a sinister purple light. "I, his emissary, will seize the power of Orphan with the Ultimate Nullifier. My Emperor will be whole while Ragnarok tears the world asunder."

* * *

Optimus Prime had just finished transmitting a mission overview to Lightning and Hope. "Two influential humans disappeared under mysterious circumstances today," he muttered to himself. "One is a corporate businessman who nearly seized control of the American government at one point. The second is the foremost advisor in anti-terrorism… Nicholas Joseph Fury, commander of S.H.I.E.L.D." He raised his head to look at the screen on Teletraan One, which displayed the evacuated borough that was Brooklyn. Ratchet had traced the bio-print of Osborne to this specific location, but the clues had not returned any solid results so far.

"Someone is trying to instigate chaos in multiple factions. And they're succeeding. Are there any clues left behind at the suspected scene of capture?"

"I just received your information, Optimus," muttered Lightning. She had a small mouthpiece clipped onto the cloth covering her breastbone, and she could examine the environs whilst maintaining contact with Orbital Terminus. She looked around the silent skyscrapers. "You said this was where Osborn was last seen, fighting costumed man with spider-like powers. But the streets have been abandoned. It's become a ghost town down here. I don't know what our enemies are playing at, but they're good at leading us on."

A loudening roar from the sky shook the pavements and roads. Hope looked up at the sky, his green eyes reflecting descending suits of armour. They were ominous figures, covered in dark metal that protected them from ordinary weapons. There were at least twelve of the humanoid forms, and they weren't even using landing gear. "Wait. Look, Light," he shouted, his voice betraying his surprise. "Are they paramilitary from…?"

Her aqua blue eyes narrowed as she readied Blazefire Saber. "Yeah, I see them," she said grimly. "They're Enforcers from PSICOM. So we finally have our culprits."

"But we don't know for sure if Osborn was captured by them," came Prime's relay.

"Trust me. They don't want anyone at the scene of their crimes," said Lightning darkly, as the soldiers completed their descent. "When you see them, you know who the perpetrators are."

Multiple pairs of metal boots slammed into the ground. Gauntleted hands gripped semiautomatic guns. The sounds of clicking and cocking filled the tense air. Helms lit by glowing yellow orbs stared at Lightning and Hope balefully.

They were surrounded.

"Claire Farron and Hope Estheim," barked their nameless leader. "By the authority vested in me by Lieutenant Colonel Yaag Rosch, we are placing you under arrest. If you do not comply immediately, we will use deadly force."

Lightning and Hope slowly inched toward each other. In a matter of seconds, their backs were pressing firmly together. Lightning's calm eyes darted from one soldier to the next, quickly picking out possible openings and devising ways to break their formation.

Hope raised his gloved hand, clenching it lightly. "You once promised to toughen me up," he whispered. "I'll prove that you haven't wasted your time."

"Good. Let's go," muttered Lightning, adrenaline coursing through her l'Cie veins.

Without another word, the two lunged in opposite directions. The Enforcers began to fire their heavy machine guns, bullets spitting across the city block. Hope opened his defence with a far-reaching Firaga spell, which burnt through four attackers and opened a path for him to charge past the regrouping phalanx. From the ensuing smokescreen leaped out a dagger-swinging Enforcer. Hope gritted his teeth as he leaped back, narrowly dodging the metal tip that threatened to plunge through his eye socket. He felt the dagger nick his cheek before he overpowered the footman with a Blizzard spell, incapacitating him with a blast of ice. Lightning dispatched another three with several strong and graceful strokes, and she danced through more gunfire, slashing an unprepared paratrooper into the air. She somersaulted high, following him, and brought her gunblade down, her sword's edge cleaving into him and smashing him to the ground.

"Is everything under control down there?" came Prime's concerned transmission.

"More or less," shouted Hope over the chaos. He exhaled in frustration as the Enforcers maintained their encirclement, refusing to let Lightning break through. His hand reached behind him, grasping a large, brightly-tinted boomerang called Skycutter. He drew back, gathering momentum, and released it spinning towards the surprised PSICOM lackeys. The boomerang bashed against an advancing Enforcer's helmet, and it continued to rebound off the aggressors, throwing one off-balance before smashing into the head of another. The man inside groaned and fell to the ground, unable to defend against Lightning's follow-through. Her gunsword cleaved into his armour, and she vanished in mid-air, slashing through two more soldiers that tried to shoot at Hope. They collapsed to the ground limply.

"I didn't expect much from PSICOM cannon fodder," she declared loudly, landing in a crouch.

Only a trio of Enforcers remained standing, and they backed away as Blazefire Saber converted into a blaster rifle before their eyes. The sword slipped back against itself and folded below a conspicuous gun barrel. One moment ago, there was a sword almost as long as she was tall. Now, a compact Gun-mode was resting in her hands, and she whipped around, coolly pressing the trigger. They couldn't react as her pinpoint marksmanship disposed of them with three clean shots. Flying back, they crashed into a stationary truck before falling back onto the roadside.

Silence pervaded the blasted streets as Hope slowly lowered his boomerang.

Having foiled the ambush, Lightning pressed onto her mouthpiece and spoke into it. "Optimus."

"I'm listening."

"I've left one alive. I'm bringing him to Orbital Terminus for interrogation purposes."

_Bring the dead ones too_, echoed Galacta's hungry voice. _I'll take care of them for you_.

"Get out of my head first," replied Lightning, shuddering. "Can you teleport all of us back up to space?"

_I can_, said Galacta telepathically, and before Hope could let out a sigh of relief at the battle's end, he was whisked away from Earth and transported back to Orbital Terminus. All he could see were dazzling purple and pink lights before his feet found the floor of the space station. Crisp, titanium walls replaced the buildings of Brooklyn. Never failing to be amazed by his ally's powers, he rubbed his eyes as his shoes touched the floor of the terminal hall. He glanced up as Lightning's hand found his shoulder, and he looked to his right as Prime's voice rang out through the hall.

"You did a great job," commended the Autobot leader, who was followed by a levitating Galacta. The heir to Galactus was dressed in a rather jarring costume, one that truly emphasized her higher nature. To begin with, she wore an imperial purple helmet that was thrice as tall as her own head. The helm had two lateral extensions that reached outward before reversing angles back in. The rest of her armour, including her gauntlets, spandex leggings and boots, were also violet in colour. Her shoulders were left bare, and her black hair trailed behind her as her eyes glowed with anticipation.

"Why do you have that outfit?" asked Hope awkwardly.

"It just _looks_ like a outfit to mortals without cosmic cognition," sniffed Galacta, licking her lips. "I appear as something different to every species. My true form isn't something that can be fully grasped, and this is the most coherent interpretation your minds can come up with. The fact that I look weird says something about you guys, not me." She gave Lightning an apologetic smile for her earlier outburst before turning her attention to the bodies on the floor. "It's about time I get to tuck in to some invader fare."

"This sounds kind of gruesome," shuddered Hope.

"We already killed these scumbags," shrugged Lightning. "Galaxy Force might as well not let them go to waste."

"This sister speaks the truth," said Galacta eagerly.

"But see this one?" said the strawberry blonde l'Cie coldly, looking behind her at a groaning Enforcer. "I'm going to get some answers out of him."

"Good idea, but keep it clean," cautioned Prime.

Lightning roughly grabbed the defeated soldier and forced him to stand, pointing her Gun-mode against his back. "March," she commanded, and they began to walk towards the elevator that led to the concourse on the east wing of Orbital Terminus. Followed by the massive Autobot, she glanced back at Hope. "I'll meet you later," she called, leaving him to witness the feeding habits of a cosmic being.

Hope nodded reluctantly as Galacta dispersed the forcefield that concealed her feeding platform. Extending behind her hips, it was an inconceivably complex apparatus with four large arms, which possessed circular openings at their heads. Those openings now began to shine yellow lights on the Enforcers. "Don't worry. I'll keep this clean too," whispered their owner. The appliances began to glow with yellow radiance, and she licked her lips as the corpses also began to shine. Inch by inch, body part by body part, they disappeared into thin air, their essences slowly sucked into miniature vortexes of light created by the Galacta's machine. Inside, the processed matter began to be converted into molecular energy, which was of a similar composition to that of burning stars.

"So this is how you consume life forms and biomass," said Hope, above the humming drone of the feeder.

Nothing from the Enforcers was left – not even their armour. As the machine let out a final roar (Hope thought it sounded rather like a toilet flushing), Galacta let out a sigh of contentment, her cheeks visibly flushing. She had not fed for at least two weeks, and the newly absorbed biomass would help to sustain her extraordinary power.

"Yes. _Yes_! This beats feeding off Kree all the time," she gushed, looking strangely attractive. She had an otherworldly beauty, there was no doubt about that, but at that point, Hope felt almost privileged that she would let him see such a vulnerable side. "This isn't much, but it's something. Living beings from Cocoon and Gran Pulse… yummy." She looked at Hope in embarrassment. "Of course, I don't mean you or Lightning. I'll satisfy my munchies _only_ with _invaders_ from Cocoon and Gran Pulse."

"That's okay," said Hope, holding up his hands. "I know what you meant."

"I'm looking forward to seeing those fal'Cie!" enthused the temporarily satisfied Galacta. "It's gonna be shebang of _meet, greet and eat_!"

Hope couldn't help laughing. Her humour, as dark as it sounded, was infectious. "I have to admit you made the feeding look really clean."

"Yeah. I don't like making mortal beings squeamish, if I say so myself." She smiled at him. "So, Hope, why don't you go rest? We've got our interrogation going, and I've got a little bit of sustenance. I'm sure Lightning and Optimus will be done with that poor man soon."

Hope nodded, reassured. _I just hope she doesn't lose her temper like she's done with me before. But I guess things have changed since she mastered Odin_.

"Okay then, Galacta. I'll be going back up to the residential wing." He stretched, yawning. "Just call my intercom if there's another mission briefing."

* * *

Lightning was never fond of fistfights. Guns and swords spoke much louder than her knuckles ever could. But every now and then, it felt good to express herself with her bare hands.

She was standing in a hangar that was located in the southern wing. It wasn't a formal interrogation room, but there was plenty of space, even when one took into account the supersonic jets that were docked side-by-side. They were twice the size of Prime, who looked on grimly as the captive PISCOM soldier tried to scramble away from Lightning. Her rough yank tore his helmet from his shoulders, revealing a sweating, panting blond man. He shuffled back, his hands and rear scraping the ground as his booted feet tried to distance themselves from the advancing l'Cie. "You and the boy are abominations. You don't have any right to do this!"

"In case you haven't noticed, this is Earth, not Cocoon," replied Lightning coldly. "Speaking of which, it's time you told us why we were sent through the bridge of light."

"It was probably unintentional," replied the Enforcer, shrugging rudely. "Our scientists are creating a supermassive spacebridge to initiate a planar overlay. Many prototypes were constructed, but most were failures, functioning the same way as a normal dimensional portal. You probably were the victim of one that activated at the wrong time or the wrong place. But soon, the mass planar spacebridge will be complete. And the Sanctum's objectives, along with the l'Cie's destruction, will be fulfilled."

Lightning visibly slumped. _So that's it_? she thought wildly. _Hope and I falling through the light was just some accident from some freak bridge they're trying to connect with Earth_?

Prime's optics betrayed his horror. "Your masters want to overlay Cocoon and Gran Pulse over Earth? And how did you obtain Cybertronian technology? Building spacebridges, let alone mass planar spacebridges, is knowledge limited to only the best of our scientists."

"Isn't it obvious?" cackled the PSICOM footman. "Primarch Dysley has been working with your kind, robot. With the combined technology of Cocoon and the Decepticons, the universe will know peace and freedom from the curse of the l'Cie."

"Primarch Dysley?" repeated Lightning, outraged. "The theocratic despot of Cocoon?"

Prime felt a wave of dread wash over him. "So Megatron is really behind this," he muttered. "He must want to extend his reach over Cocoon as well as Earth. Has he any idea how a planar overlay would affect the elements of the two dimensions? Earth would be crushed, and Cocoon and Gran Pulse would sink into the sea. What is he trying to achieve with such senseless destruction?"

The soldier choked as Lightning's fist collided with his cheekbone. "If PSICOM and the Sanctum knew about the bridges of light all along, then they're nothing more than puppets, just like we l'Cie were to the fal'Cie!" she snarled, slamming his back against the steel wall. Her sharp eyes glared into his barren pupils. "I know I've been played for a fool by the Sanctum. But why are you all following in my footsteps? I thought you were smarter than that."

"Don't ask me that, take it up to the upper management," snapped the Enforcer. "Take it up to the Emperor, the one our commander now serves."

"Emperor?" snapped Lightning. "I never heard about this while I was on Cocoon."

"_Emperor of Destruction_," snarled Prime angrily, glaring at the Enforcer. "It could only mean the epithet for Megatron himself. You of the Sanctum have lost yourselves in your fear. You are serving beings that wish death upon themselves for an absurd cause. If Megatron is in charge, not even the fal'Cie will be able to break free from his control. He will deceive them with their own language, and they will gladly die in his name."

"I don't really care about that. PISCOM was ordered to break the backbone of command on Earth. That's all. That's why we initiated contact with this planet in the first place," coughed the shaking paratrooper. "We've targeted the most important men and women here, replacing them with those worthy to follow the Sanctum." He glared at Lightning. "It's too late. Commander Nabaat is implementing the final stages of the plan as we speak. With the support of higher powers, she can't be hindered by filthy l'Cie like you."

Lightning leaned forward to glare at the trembling soldier, spittle on the verge of flying out her mouth. "I'm going to introduce your bespectacled flower to my gunblade. As if what you've done to Cocoon isn't enough, you're trying to destroy Earth. You've brainwashed the entire continent to hate the l'Cie for the sake of the fal'Cie! What is their role in this plan, anyway?" She struck him again and again, and her strength gathered as the man fell silent, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. "Is it to die for Megatron's sake, like how Hope and I are supposed to die for Cocoon's security?"

"Claire Farron!" boomed Prime suddenly. "No more."

Panting, Lightning's blows ceased as the Enforcer's head lolled lifelessly, rendered mad by the masters he served. He had died, although she was unconvinced that it was because of her attacks. It had been far too sudden. It was as if someone had decided that he should not live. "Why did you stop me?" muttered the l'Cie, catching her breath as she relaxed her grip slightly.

"Enough is enough. Do not disrespect the dead, no matter who they are," exclaimed Prime. "What more do you want to learn from him? He's a human being that's been broken by Decepticon brainwashing. Who knows how many on Cocoon are now in thrall to Megatron?"

He stared out at the hangar windows, which revealed the infinite vastness of space and twinkling stars in the backdrop of the solar system. "It's not just the Decepticons that pose a danger to Earth. We've got the Guardian Corps and PSICOM to worry about. Don't waste your energy hating them, Lightning. You'll exhaust yourself before you know it. I've fought Megatron for tens of thousands of years, and look at the damage he's trying to cause now. I still have the energy to fight on because I have a purpose beyond rage and vengeance."

He gave a weary sigh before striding out of the hangar. The gargantuan gate hissed shut, and he left Lightning to her jumbled thoughts as she dropped the Enforcer's corpse, letting it slump before her.

Gritting her teeth and swearing, she remembered Serah's crying face, Snow, and her unfinished mission on Cocoon.

* * *

She didn't bother to shower, although she did take off her coat and turtleneck, leaving her upper body bare except for a black, athletic bra. She threw her garments to the corner of her room and slumped against the side of the bed, allowing her rear to hit the floor roughly.

She closed her eyes, breathing heavily as she relaxed.

_The Sanctum knew about the bridges of light…_

_PSICOM is transporting an army onto Earth and replacing the planet's leaders with its own…_

_Hasn't Galenth Dysley done enough damage on Cocoon already_?

It had been a long time since she lost control in front of another person (or robot). The accumulative stress of landing to Earth, her worry over Hope, and the revelations of the Sanctum's activities climaxed in an outburst of indignant outrage at her current predicament. She was not angry at Prime – he deserved nothing less than her gratitude. Nor did she regret joining Galaxy Force. It was her position of relative powerlessness in the face of the Sanctum's life-hating plans that frustrated her. She detested being manipulated by the fal'Cie for their desires. She hated the desperation that disgraced her struggle for freedom. She was about to hate something else when she was distracted by a quiet tapping outside.

"It's not locked," she grunted.

"Oh… okay. Can I come in?" came Hope's voice.

"Yeah," muttered Lightning, and at her voice-activated command, the door slid open quietly, revealing a Hope in a much more carefree t-shirt and shorts. He had also taken off his gloves and shoes. But his tentative smile disappeared when he saw her, and he rushed over to her in concern, falling to his knees and trying to break into her dispirited stare. The door quickly shut behind him.

"Light!" he cried.

"Hey." Her slightly boyish voice sounded slightly wobbly. She met his eyes, but only briefly. He tilted his head, looking past the sharp bangs and directly at the woman who had mentored him on Cocoon. It felt painful to see her suffering like this, with no one cause to address and no visible injury that could be healed. It was not the wounds outside, but the ones inside that hurt the most.

"Bad time at the interrogation, huh?" he asked gently.

Slowly, she told him the information extracted from the now-dead Enforcer.

"Things are getting big… very big. The spacebridge we fell through was just some random accident," she muttered. "It's one of the failed experiments for a mass planar portal they're going to use to bring Cocoon and Gran Pulse into this dimension, onto Earth." Hope looked horrified, but nodded for her to continue. "The Sanctum and PSICOM are being manipulated by Prime's enemies, the Decepticons. Either Megatron has promised false things to Galenth Dysley, or he's somehow seized control of the higher officers in the Sanctum through coercion or brainwashing. Or both. But Dysley's followers are too drunk on their own fear and the fal'Cie's authority to step back. We're looking at a convergence of three worlds here, and the only good thing I can see coming out of it is that we'll can meet up with Serah and the others again."

She gave a bittersweet smirk, rubbing her forehead. "I know. My thoughts are all over the place. Optimus doesn't rush through things like me. He's fought Megatron for a couple dozen millennia, but he's got this young and brave kind of hope that makes me feel… a little pathetic."

"He's starting to feel like a teacher to me. I mean… we've both lost parents, after all," said Hope, hoping to hearten her with his shared unhappiness. "My father is the only family member I have now. I still don't have confidence in him. So maybe having some direction under Optimus isn't such a bad thing for us."

Lightning looked at his hands, which were resting on her arm. She could not help admiring his spunk in the face of someone's distress. It was as if he was innocent about the fact that she was mostly undressed. She shot him a sharp stare, and he seemed to realize how close he was to her. How intimate they were being. How vulnerable she really looked, with her largely exposed body and fragile composure.

"You're the one who came in here," she challenged, finding a guilty amusement in his mild blush.

He grinned apologetically, but she made no move to brush him off. Encouraged, he gave her arm a firm and reassuring squeeze. He glanced at her usually stern face and was almost taken aback by her renewed smile.

"Thanks, kid. You're special. You learn things quickly, unlike me. I'm happy I can protect you," she said softly.

Hope suddenly felt nervous in her presence. He was surprised with himself for that. It was as if he suddenly remembered that she was a _woman_, a twenty one-year-old member of the opposite sex. She was supposed to be a pretty creature that boys his age contracted cooties from. Then was it creepy, he wondered, that he wanted to stay in her room a bit longer?

"It's been a weird couple of days. So I want to protect you, too. Well, I'll do my best to," he stammered.

Her worries momentarily forgotten thanks to his earnest efforts, Lightning stifled a chuckle as she gave his forehead a light poke, followed by a comradely ruffling of his messy silver hair.

* * *

_Beijing _

"So these creatures are called fal'Cie," muttered Bumblebee, as his speedster mode raced through the spires of the Chinese capital. Across the Middle Kingdom, beasts were tearing across the skylines that stood proudly as a testament to the tenacity of its people. Prime's spy and espionage specialist had passed by Tiananmen Square some time ago, and he was glad that the authorities were keeping the alien attacks relatively contained. The thinly spread forces of the Autobots were not enough to repulse the foreign monsters. More innocents would be hurt if they didn't destroy the creatures quickly.

"We need to regroup and organize a special strike team to fight with Galaxy Force," came Ratchet's crackling voice on Bumblebee's radio. "We're being pushed back on all fronts. S.H.I.E.L.D's in chaos, and something's tearing up Stark Industries too, so forget about reinforcements from their end against these alien monsters. Where in Primus' name are Iron Man and War Machine?"

"Optimus is relaying new information to me," offered Arcee over the transmission. "These creatures are from a world called Gran Pulse, which is a mirror realm to a continent called Cocoon. I think it's safe to say that Earth is being invaded by Gran Pulse's organisms."

"But there's no real army, no organization. It's chaos. Could this just be the beginning of something bigger?" Bumblebee stared ahead, glimpsing the prone body of a humanoid male. He was crawling into a back alley between two old buildings. He disappeared from view before Bumblebee could catch up.

"Hold on. I'm picking up a life signal from an injured humanoid. I'll report back to you guys later."

He quickly transformed, his speedster mode losing its sleek, rounded form and disappearing amidst a series of shifting metal. A yellow and grey-silver robot emerged from the transformation, with relatively short limbs and a diminutive frame and torso. His red insignia of allegiance gleamed on his forehead between his horns as he found his footing and began to walk slowly towards the spot where he had seen the crawling human.

He peeked down the dark alleyway. Dim light streamed from one of the windows that reflected the sun, but apart from that, there was no other source of light. His friendly optics flashed in concern as he saw the individual, who had marked the ground with a trail of gore. The tall man was lying amidst several garbage bags, which propped up his head as he stared at the robot looming over him. He was young, with cool eyes and a narrow, handsome face. His lavish, silver-tinted uniform denoted a high rank, but it was torn and stained with dirt. His raven-black hair was matted with blood, and he was panting heavily, as if a lung had been punctured. Life poured out of his mouth, and it was particularly suspicious that he did not have a weapon with him.

Bumblebee realized that his initial impression was wrong. "You're not completely human," he murmured, his scanners picking up l'Cie biometrics. The humanoid had similar readings to Galaxy Force's two newest members. _Their names are Lightning and Hope, right_? thought Bumblebee to himself. _How did another l'Cie end up here_?

Too big to fit completely in the alley, he knelt and reached down with his hand, scooping up the broken man as gently as he could. "Hang in there. You'll be okay," he said. "What's your name? How did you end up here?"

"My… name is Cid… Cid Raines," wheezed the man, propping himself up with his hands. "He… _he's won_," he roared suddenly, his hand gripping the robot's finger. "_He's… made us all orphans_," he choked dementedly, whose blood was seeping onto Bumblebee's hand. His eyes had the look of a possessed lunatic. "He's in me, he's in the fal'Cie. He's in all of us!"

"Wait," cried a rattled Bumblebee. "Start from the beginning. What happened? Who's made you all orphans?"

"The l'Cie… it is not their fault. It shouldn't be their burden to bear," ranted the fatally wounded man. "Protect… the citizens… the people. They are the sole reason why we ended up here…"

"Who can I track down?" asked Bumblebee urgently, encouraged by the snippet of information. "I need you to tell me more – "

The man wasn't listening. Or maybe he was. Perhaps he knew his time was coming, and felt there was little hope in explaining anything to the robot. For he was the last stranger he would ever meet.

"… _Protect those we wronged_."

Those two words were Cid's last. He sighed and fell quiet, relaxing his hold on Bumblebee's finger. His eyes closed, and on his face was a look of peace as well as regret. The Autobot's scanners detected no more life in the l'Cie, and the ensuing silence was affecting.

"He's gone." Bumblebee tenderly laid him back on the ground, closing his optics in remembrance. "Sleep," he acknowledged softly. Releasing Cid, he began to encrypt a transmission to Orbital Terminus.

"Optimus?" he said urgently. "I've found a murdered l'Cie in Beijing. I think you should check this out."

* * *

"Osborn and Fury are already gone. And now a commander from the Guardian Corps is dead." Optimus Prime's heavy voice rang through Lightning and Hope's comlinks. "If I didn't know better, this would look like the random crimes of a madman. But if what we know is true, then Megatron's orchestrating a takeover of Earth and Cocoon on a scale that's never been seen before. Who else might be targets of this cruel purge?"

Galacta had teleported the l'Cie duo into the heart of Shibuya in Tokyo, where a much larger army from PSICOM was attempting a complete takeover of the Japanese capital. Lightning blasted away four Enforcers with her Gun-mode, hardly able to believe the sinister turn of events. "Cid Raines… I will remember that name," she muttered, unperturbed by the screaming throngs of people that fled the scene of battle. "That man might have been trying to warn us about this coming invasion, although it's already starting."

Hope's boomerang sent a PSICOM Warden tumbling through the air. The Sanctum's forces were diverse, and more specialized troops like Predators and Rangers were beginning to attack cities across the world. Conventional weapons like tanks and warships had been deployed against PSICOM, only to be foiled by coordinated Decepticon attacks, led by the same Starscream Lightning and Prime defeated some time ago.

"Optimus, you have to make sure Starscream stays down this time," snapped Lightning, her gunblade converting back into Sword-mode. "Dysley is trying to force us to overreach ourselves. Who's on the scene?"

"I've deployed Jetfire and Jazz against Thundercracker and Skywarp. Warpath should be enough to engage Brawl, who is cutting a swathe through San Francisco. I'll deal with Starscream myself." Prime's optics gleamed as he observed the battle from his command chamber. "But that's not enough. Decepticon drones are flooding into every major city on the planet. So I've called upon all of Earth's protectors to stand beside Galaxy Force. That includes the X-Men, members of the Avengers, and Galacta's friends, the Fantastic Four. It's up to them how they want to coordinate their counterattacks."

"Uh, Light? Optimus?" came Hope's uncertain voice. Back in Tokyo, Lightning turned to look at the boy, who was slowly backing away from two advancing Destroyers. Lightning sprinted towards them and cut across their weapons, before bringing them down with an angry diagonal slash. Hope let out a shout of warning, and she slipped past an Enforcer's knife before shooting him in the head. The man fell before her booted feet, humbled in death.

"You okay?" It was hard for Lightning to be too frustrated with him. "You can't space out like that. We're trying to find Vanille and the others, remember?"

"I wasn't worried about those guys." Hope looked up at her with terrified eyes, and he suddenly grabbed hold of her hand. "Light."

"Hope, what's wrong?" she asked in concern.

His voice grew hushed and urgent. "Haven't you noticed? Can't you feel the ground shaking? The tremor's faint, but it's there."

She glanced down at the charred ground, at his laced sneakers. And he was right – the concrete _was_ shaking, even though the tremor was hardly noticeable. In the backdrop was a gentle rumble, which only just registered in her ears. For a moment, Hope's words almost made her forget that she was in the midst of a battle. "Could it be an earthquake?" she asked awkwardly.

Prime's dismayed voice crackled from her comlink. "No, it's not an earthquake. I've just received a transmission from Jetfire and Air Raid. We're getting the same vibrations across the world. The spacebridges are the cause. The bridge of light you two fell through in the beginning – multiple passages of the same kind are opening across the Earthen atmosphere, and it's only a matter of time before you see the same above Tokyo. Whole islands and continents are groaning from the gravitational force of these unfolding spacebridges. That can only mean one thing," concluded the Autobot leader grimly, as Lightning and Hope stared at each other in mutual horror.

"It's begun. The mass planar overlay."

* * *

Megatron's sinister plot had begun in earnest, spearheaded by PSICOM and the fanatical authorities of the Sanctum.

Gigantic tubes of radiant light were erupting across the skies of Europe, each opening with mighty clap resembling thunder. In major cities and towns, the people fled, and the nations of the Continent began mobilizing their military in preparation for an alien invasion. But these spacebridges were merely forerunners – the mass planar portal had yet to make its grand entrance. It was to be infinitely larger, constructed with the specific intention to transplant the entire world of Cocoon and Gran Pulse onto the blue planet. This was only the beginning, the trial run, and for the main event to succeed, many early sacrifices would have to be made.

In Paris, a particularly large spacebridge vomited out several flying bodies, creating a panicked exodus of the civilians in the city square. The screaming party that tumbled out of the sky crashed on top of the Arc de Triomphe, before rolling down the monument and falling to the ground below. Taxis and motorbikes swerved to avoid the bodies, and for a while, hollering and honking were all that could be heard. After several minutes, however, one of the group's members – a tall, handsome man in a long, faded trenchcoat – recovered, and he helped up his companions, urging them to stand quickly. He rubbed the back of his blonde hair with a hands protected by black gloves and adjusted his black bandana.

"Damn… like that didn't hurt."

Snow Villiers looked around, keeping a calm expression. "What the hell is this place?" he muttered. "One moment we were pushing back those fal'Cie, the next – "

"It must be some kind of dream realm… or a mirror dimension," mumbled a dark-skinned man with an Afro. Garbed in what resembled a naval uniform with a green overcoat and khaki pants, he staggered forward, and a yellow bird in his impressive hairdo gave a loud _kweh_. "Quiet, Chocobo," he whispered. "We need to know how we can get back to the other side of that bridge of light."

"That bridge isn't something we can do anything about, Sazh," said a beautiful, dark-haired woman behind him. Her blue sari, worn over a black top, was distinctly different from the more metropolitan outfits of her companions. She was decorated with tribal ornaments, and she held a double-bladed spear in her right hand. "The fal'Cie from Gran Pulse are going to follow us through it. Hey, Vanille, are you hurt?" she asked, turning to examine a short girl with pink pigtails and kind jade eyes. Her freckled face was far more innocent than her companion's, and she re-adjusted her costume, which was of similar tribal heritage to her taller, tanned friend.

"Don't worry about me, Fang. I just feel a little shaken, that's all," replied Vanille. She glanced up, eyes widening. "But this place isn't Cocoon or Gran Pulse. And those vortexes of light aren't disappearing. Look!" she cried, pointing at the shining heavens. Illuminated by the sinister portals, the forms of huge, flying robots were descending on the lights of Paris. There was no other description for the massive beings. And they certainly weren't benevolent – they had opened fire, and in the background of the bridges of light, beams of focused power began to burn away the city's edifices, incinerating its complexes, towers and people in a growing conflagration of carnage.

"They don't look friendly," said Fang bluntly, placing a hand on Vanille's quivering shoulder. "We'd better find out who they are, quick."

"So what do we do now? Do you want to confront those robots?" cried Sazh over the roar of the new infernos. "Snow?"

"You want to know the truth? I do want to beat them up. But heroes put priorities first. And for now, it's to find our missing comrades!" barked Serah's fiancé, as the Decepticon drones continued their all-out bombardment on the French capital. "You just can't stop to catch your breath, hey? Let's get out of here and figure out what the hell is going on before we make our next move!"

He clenched his fist. "And I was so close to finding Serah. I need to get to her before this whole place falls apart!"

"It'll be okay," said Vanille. "Wherever this place is, we'll find her, and Lightning and Hope, too. And we'll all find a way home."

Her eyes glimmered courageously, and for a moment, the party seemed to regain a degree of calm.

"_Together_."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	3. Chapter 3: Interplanar Struggle

Thanks for checking out Chapter 3 of _Galaxy Fantasy_. This is the slightly unhinged story of an unlikely foursome of superheroes, who have come together amidst incredible circumstances. As three worlds combine, more heroes and heroines are about to meet and form friendships, and more are about to join the interspecies team called Galaxy Force. The fierce and proud Lightning will need all the help she can get, because she and Hope face a wicked nemesis that has already conquered their world and now plans to conquer humankind's, once and for all. As the planar spacebridge begins to vomit out the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse into Earth's atmosphere, Galaxy Force regroups to save the three realms from a cataclysmic, inter-dimensional catastrophe. Can the chaos caused by the planar overlay be stopped? Can Optimus Prime save his friends from his archenemy Megatron? And what price does friendship and love need to pay for Earth's salvation?

Many questions and battles remain ahead. This struggle will define Galaxy Force's finest hour.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Interplanar Struggle**

The old man looked extremely autocratic, with arrogant eyes and thin, worn lips. Even his skin, stretched over his old frame and face bore wrinkled witness to his hateful life. An existence that had been spent fermenting and fanning hatred against the l'Cie had now reached its climax. Disguised as a human theocrat, he was in truth the leader of the fal'Cie on Cocoon, a godlike being who longed for the return of the one true God that created the continent and the world below, Gran Pulse. Barthandelus yearned for the coming of the being that had created him and all the other fal'Cie, their true father and mother, the long-absent Maker.

Perhaps with Megatron's extermination of this world and all worlds, the Maker would be satisfied. Their sacrifice would be complete. Barthandelus would finally be able to be absorbed into Orphan in peace.

"Come, O Ragnarok," murmured the fal'Cie disguised as Primarch Galenth Dysley. "Release us from this painful life without our beloved, holy progenitor."

Jihl stood before him, hands holding her baton. Behind her was the silhouette of her Emperor, although the chamber was shrouded in darkness to begin with. The PSICOM forces had all left the hall by now. Only three individuals remained in here. "The overlay is happening at this very moment," said the Sanctum commander. "Our worlds are about to change, now and forever. All thanks to the Emperor, who came to us and taught me the truth of our role as the Sanctum's high command. We have been living a lie. We have lied to ourselves. Yet truth is not hard to rediscover. It is found in legitimate authority, in the fists of a metal god.

"That is why we cannot tolerate any challenge to his authority on Earth. That is why I am no longer ignorant of the fal'Cie's role, and that is why I do not fear anything anymore. I live only for my commander. Do as you see fit, but challenge his hegemony over Cocoon, and you will know the power of the Ultimate Nullifier, which he holds in his beautiful hand."

"Are you quite done? I am tired. My crystal is like a knife in my heart, demanding that I see our Maker again. How could any of you ever understand the yearnings of the beings that preserve the very sanctity and dignity of Cocoon? I only serve your precious new love because I will soon see my creator through his actions. Now, leave me in peace," whispered Dysley, his voice a hiss. The life seemed to have been sucked out of him. A mysterious, oppressive weight seemed to have crushed him. Perhaps he still hadn't recovered from the aftershocks of Megatron's unimaginable takeover of Cocoon and the wave of mind-control from the Ultimate Nullifier. "Let me return to where I truly belong. With the Maker, with the Creator of Cocoon and Gran Pulse." He slowly shuffled into the darkness, dismissing his two unwanted companions with a turned back and a weary shuffle.

Silence remained after the last traces of Dysley's shoes faded away. Jihl smiled, her eyes glinting behind her spectacles.

"He will turn against you soon," echoed a cold, robotic voice that emanated from the looming shadow behind Jihl. "I will kill him myself, although that won't be necessary if he throws himself into the pool of dreams that Orphan sleeps in."

"It matters not either way. You said so yourself," smiled Nabaat. "Nothing can be reversed now. Our fates have been sealed with your mark. In the same way the l'Cie were marked by the fal'Cie of Gran Pulse, you have marked us all for death in your glory's name. I am so honoured. Thank you for blessing us – for blessing _me_ – with your curse."

"You are a good and faithful servant." Jihl restrained herself from shuddering in pleasure at her master's response. She could feel herself melting with each word he spoke. "You will be the first organic creature – the first woman – to experience the miracle of the threefold convergence. You will see, with your own pretty little eyes, the chaos that heralds my new order."

"My Emperor of Destruction," moaned Jihl, dropping her baton. She couldn't concentrate on anything else. Her knees felt weak, and it was difficult not to just fall at his feet. "Do not torment me any longer. Let me serve you, again and again. Once more, I ask for my own satisfaction: what is your desire?"

"Simple," boomed the Decepticon in the shadows. "A Great War unlike any other, worthy of the name Megatron. A tripartite slaughter between Cybertron, Cocoon, and Earth. Total domination of this reality and all others. With the power of the Ultimate Nullifier and the crystal of Orphan within me, I shall be the one to ascend while Ragnarok destroys your worlds."

* * *

After cremating Cid Raine's body, Bumblebee had requested a teleportation from Galacta. It did not take long to reach her. Prime had instructed him to merely think of her, and she would notice him no matter where he was. Talking to her almost felt like praying to Primus, the Creator God of the Transformers, except that this time he actually heard answers in his head.

"_Where do you want to go_?" she had sung.

He told her he wanted to rendezvous with his comrades Ironhide and Air Raid, and with a thought from Galacta, he was in Berlin, where Ironhide had been studying the recent murder of a would-be world conqueror. That man was the feared Red Skull, whose Nazi ambitions pitted him against an embodiment of freedom and justice known as Captain America. But that was a history that had suddenly been cut short by PSICOM assassins. Now, the murderous maniac's corpse was nailed to the far-left pillar of the Brandenburg Gate. The crowds had scattered in terror long ago, and no one knew how someone had managed to so casually murder a man with a skull for a face and display him in broad daylight. Affixed to the crucified victim's military uniform was a cheap metal placard, reading in crudely scrawled words:

"_I am disobedient to the true Fuhrer_."

Bumblebee couldn't hide his dismay as he walked towards the Red Skull's body, draped in Nazi finery. He didn't even notice the humans in the city square, who were either running from or staring at the corpse in transfixed horror. He stared at the gaping eye sockets, the jaundiced whites that testified to the dishonour and dread during his final moments.

"Another influential player killed by PSICOM strongarms?" he whispered, walking up to Ironhide and Air Raid, who were looking up at the Red Skull. "Megatron is going after all these guys who influence this planet's politics. It's pretty obvious who he's going to replace them with – himself."

In contrast to the surly but experienced Ironhide, Air Raid was an arrogant Cybertronian youth and one of the fastest aerial Autobots. His daring successes did not help his meagre humility, either. White and red in colour, he placed his fists on his metallic hips as he looked at the older Autobot beside him. "They've desecrated an Earthen monument to boot, Ironhide," he observed. "I don't know about you, but I think someone's got to pay for property damage."

"You'll have your culprits soon," said Ironhide, his voice naturally hoarse and toughened by years of battle and violence. He pointed a finger at the groaning heavens. "Look. The sky is already crying." Now it was visibly shuddering as the bottom of an entire continent, wrapped in a gargantuan shroud of yellow, tore apart the clouds. With the spires of towering skyscrapers, long, twisting highways and an ozone layer of its own, it shook and came to an uncomfortable halt, cracks appearing in its artificial, manmade infrastructure. Screams could be heard across the city as its Earthen citizens stared up in horror at the futuristic realm descending from the empyrean. The heavens were regurgitating an entire world onto Earth, and the clouds were all but shielded from sight as Berlin was plunged into darkness under the shadow of Cocoon's underbelly. In an unnatural eclipse, the nation of Germany was enfolded in night by the effect of the interplanar spacebridge.

Coming to an eerie stillness, the metallic land of Cocoon could now be seen by all in Berlin, high in the firmament.

Bumblebee's optical sensors were wide in shock. He could barely process it. "It's… a floating city. I've never seen anything like this, not even on Cybertron when we fought the Great War."

Ironhide scowled. "Not just a city, but a nation-state. Optimus told us about this," said the red veteran robot. He clenched his fist angrily as the ground itself began to shake. A mild earthquake was reverberating throughout Berlin, and it was only natural as an entirely different reality fused with the blue planet. "That place, that island, is Cocoon. The place Megatron's taken over. That's the new base of the Decepticons. The planar overlay is happening, right now. And that means they're about to launch a full-on assault on Europe."

Everywhere, it was the same. In the United States, in the Middle East, in Asia, and in Europe – a uniform darkness had fallen across the northern hemisphere.

"Come in, Arcee," roared Ironhide, scanning for available frequencies to link to. "Come in, Ratchet! They've all been cut off." He swore, looking up at the now motionless continent of Cocoon. The continent was quiet, but an irrepressible aura of evil emanated from its spires, choking the stratosphere of the Earth. "The Decepticons have taken over all the communications on this planet. The internet all civilians and military frequencies – I just hope they haven't hacked into Teletraan One!"

"No way that'll happen," cried Bumblebee. "Optimus has moved Teletraan One up into space, into Orbital Terminus. Galaxy Force can protect it from Megatron… I think."

"Hey, are you guys done worrying about what will or won't happen? Focus on the present moment, _the present moment_! We've got a war to win here!" Air Raid bent his knees and activated his pulse guns, excitement coursing through his circuits. "What are we waiting for? I'm gonna fly up there and take down the Seekers!"

"We don't know what Starscream and the other Decepticons are up to," snarled Ironhide. "They could be anywhere now, thanks to the spacebridge technology. They're going to use those bridges to spread their forces across Earth."

"All Autobots need to report to Optimus!" cried Bumblebee. "We need Galaxy Force's power. We need its secret weapon."

"The being called Galacta, eh?" muttered Ironhide, deploying his intimidating ion cannon. "I don't know what her full powers can so – Prime's playing this one close to the hand. But whatever she is, I'm glad she's on our side." He was jolted out of his thoughts by shrill, soulless voices that seemed to come from Cocoon itself. The words were coherent, sung like a choir, but it still sounded like a cacophony, a fugue that split the head and sent the heart into despair.

"_With this sacrifice, the return of the Maker is nigh_!" they shrieked. "_Cocoon has come to Earth! Cybertron is here! Judgement is here! Salvation is here_!"

Bumblebee activated his built-in comlink. "Optimus," he said tersely, "I think you have your culprits." He stepped back as a building nearby exploded from an ion blast and collapsed, as if it was marked for demolition. Artillery shots from the floating theocracy were being fired into Berlin, and Decepticon drones could be seen swarming above the cityscape. No one else stood before the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin had descended into anarchy. Bumblebee was only concerned that the city couldn't be evacuated in time even as the overlay reached its second phase: _attack_. But that was only the beginning of his worries. Multiple bridges of blinding light were booming into existence at random spots around him, and creatures large and small were thrown out onto the concrete, hissing and roaring. They were of diverse shapes and sizes – some were as small as Earthen fowl, others, as bulky as an Earthen elephant. Some were bristling with threatening barbs; others had a thick, armoured hide to ward off predators. There were too many to count, but they were clearly angry and hostile.

"What are these monsters? I've lost track of their numbers already," growled Ironhide, whose bulk matched the majority of the wild animals.

"They must be from Gran Pulse," cried Bumblebee. "Jetfire's monitoring the status of the spacebridges. Megatron is using Cybertronian technology to transport a whole dimension into Earth's spatial fabric!"

"You sound too academic, Bumbles. I don't like that. Less talking and let's take them down," shouted Air Raid, firing his cannons and incinerating two reptilian beasts that pounced at him. "You guys take care of the organics, and I'll shoot down the Decepticon air force! We'll get Jetfire to identify their genetic classifications later." He shot into the sky, transforming into a slim Cybertronian fighter jet. He spun several times boisterously, hurtling directly for Cocoon and outpacing all the other Decepticon fighters in the artificial night.

Ironhide swore as Bumblebee cocked his plasma cannon. "Dig in, young one," he snorted. "This is going to be a long fight. Let's just hope Galaxy Force is as solid as Optimus claims."

* * *

Tokyo Tower was burning, consumed by the fire from Sanctum artillery.

Lightning propelled herself from the corpse of a PSICOM Reaver, withdrawing her blade as she hurtled toward a Navidon. Hope weaved a powerful fire spell into existence, sending towards the creature and allowing Lightning a crucial opening. As the Navidon began to inhale, gathering the force needed to expel a torrent of ice, Lightning slashed upward and hurtled back down to the ground, roaring as she split the beast's head in two. Blood washed over her as she swung wildly back, decapitating an advancing Enforcer as Hope rushed toward her, throwing his boomerang and striking out an advancing vampire. He skidded before the panting Lightning and sent out a forceful blast of Earth magic, pummelling the necromantic creature and burying it in a second death.

"This is the strangest battle I've ever fought," shouted Lightning over the pandemonium. She glanced quickly around; watching PSICOM soldiers struggling against the untamed beasts of Gran Pulse while Decepticon drones continued their assault on the Japanese tanks and aircraft. It felt completely surreal – she never imagined that she would see the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse united once more. The chaos seemed to be totally random, but according to Prime, the global pandemonium was its own purpose: it heralded the future of Earth, a future that belonged to the orchestrator of this chaos, Megatron.

Hope electrocuted another Enforcer and sending him to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably. He sidestepped a swipe from a clawed, genetically modified aberration and incinerated its upper half with an expertly placed, scorching fireball. "We just can't catch a break, can we?" he said breathlessly.

Lightning nodded in agreement, her face etched with concern. For the first time, she was beginning to think that such a horde was essentially endless; there was no way that she and Hope could stem the tide for lone. What was Prime's plan going to be? And when was he going to implement it? Surely as the Autobot leader, he wasn't stupid enough to believe a team of four could beat back a numberless army without a strategy?

"Damn it, Optimus," she whispered to herself. "If your plan gets the kid hurt at all, I'm going to – "

"Incoming!" Hope pivoted on one foot and turned to face an incoming missile, quickly conjuring an icy barrier that shuddered against the heavy impact of the explosion. He skidded back, crying out in exertion as the soles of his shoes seared the concrete from their friction with the ground. He raised his sweating face from his cross-arm block and gasped. "It's one of those Cybertronians – I mean, Decepticons!" he cried, noticing the purple insignia on the robot's chest. Of relatively small size, Hope's assailant lurched towards Lightning, with a huge army of mindless drones marching behind him. They looked completely mindless – their heads didn't even have optical sensors or noses like other Cybertronians. Rather, their faces possessed a giant, dark lens that relayed the most basic of tactical information to their databases. Their helms were constructed just to contain this relatively inefficient lens. Their leader's right hand was his most noticeable feature: it was not even a hand, but a gleaming hook with a vicious, curved tip. Lightning glared into the Cybertronian's red optics, which were encased in a helm of silver and black.

"Get back or come to us. It doesn't matter either way," she called to the Decepticon. "I'm taking you apart, here and now."

"You think you can actually kill me? Do you really think you can touch Lockdown?" challenged the advancing warrior. He bared his titanium teeth, which were bizarrely large given the proportions of his mouth. "I've stayed alive under Megatron for so many thousands of years – what makes you think you're stronger than my leader? What makes you think you're strong enough to break me?" He raised his left hand, clenching it into a fist. "Kill them! Leave nothing breathing! Megatron's commanded that this city be consumed by bedlam and anarchy!" roared Lockdown, and the drones advanced, firing indiscriminately at the Gran Pulse creatures as well as the Galaxy Force teammates. The city began to shake from the random explosions as the surrounding buildings were engulfed in flames. In response, the confused and frightened beasts of Gran Pulse raised their hackles, pouncing toward the drones and tearing into their circuitry. Struggles began to break out amongst the new arrivals before they could even reach Lightning and Hope.

If Lockdown wanted pandemonium, then he had certainly succeeded.

"You're going down," growled Lightning. She disappeared in a blur of crackling blue energy dispersed by her Grav-con Unit, and in less than a second, she was in the air, having evaded the drones' missiles and aiming Blazefire Saber directly at Lockdown. The Decepticon raised his left forearm to block her strike, and her blade screeched deafeningly against his Cybertronium. She pushed harder, and the gunblade lodged itself into his arm halfway. Unfortunately, that meant she was also now stuck, dangling awkwardly a couple dozen feet in the air and struggling to complete the attack. Lockdown smirked, having sacrificed an arm to lure the l'Cie into his trap. He raised his right arm, his barbed hook glinting. Lightning could barely register Hope's scream of warning before she was forced to avoid Lockdown's brutal and efficient swing. She released her sword, falling to the ground and landing in a painful crouch. She quickly somersaulted back, panting, as Lockdown grunted in frustration. His hook was larger than her body. Had it made contact with her –

"Damn him. He's got my gunblade," she muttered to herself. How could she have been so clumsy?

"You're done, flesh-woman!" cried Lockdown triumphantly. "I don't know who or what you are. But it hardly matters now, does it?" He repositioned himself and brought down his weapon, roaring. "_Now – you – die_!" he shrieked, gathering as much momentum as he physically could for a fatal blow. But just as his limb seemed to meet the ground, Hope dashed before a surprised Lightning and threw up a forcefield of energy, meeting Lockdown's strength with his magical skill. A shockwave emanated from the epicentre of their meeting, sending several drones flying away. Hope clenched his teeth, pushing desperately with his hands to expand the scope of the forcefield. Lockdown gave a loud cackle and struck again and again, enjoying the boy's resistance. Each merciless blow weakened the energy field, and soon he would break through. "Why delay the inevitable, boy?" laughed Lockdown, in between his attacks. "You can't do anything now. You're helpless. Give up!"

_He's pretty… strong. I don't know how long I can hold on to my forcefield_, admitted Hope to himself silently.

"Give up!" howled Lockdown again, striking harder and causing the ground to quake.

Hope's ears were throbbing from the roar of his own spell. The force was greater than he expected; it was too much. After what seemed an eternity of grim straining, he just felt like folding from Lockdown's brute strength. But even as his knees began to buckle, he felt himself steadied. Just when he wanted to collapse, his shaking stopped. Something had wrapped itself around his upper body, holding him tightly in place as he braced against Lockdown's repeated banging. He looked back, his eyes widening as they met Lightning's. She gazed straight back at him wordlessly, and he was surprised that he still had time to blush as Lockdown roared in frustration. She had gone down on one knee behind him, linking her arms around him and clutching him firmly. He glanced down at her clasped hands, and the fingers that had interlocked for his sake.

Like on so many other occasions, he found himself in her embrace once more.

"Light," he whispered, his heart pounding rapidly for a million different reasons.

"You're not going anywhere I can't follow," she gritted, and he noticed her hug tightening around his waist. He responded with a sharp intake of breath. He had to be honest. It felt good – it felt warm, safe. He could feel her hot breath on his neck and jawbone as she did her utmost to keep him upright. Her lips were close enough to touch his face, and strands of her strawberry-blonde hair were tickling his cheek. "I stuffed up my attack and you paid for it. I'm just making up for my mistake."

Hope's haunting eyes glimmered with emotion. "You were wrong," he whispered, his voice cracking.

"Don't worry about anything else, just concentrate on the forcefield!" shouted Lightning above the noise of Lockdown's swings, jolting him back into the reality of the battle. "We'll push him back with a combined fireblast."

Hope turned back to glare up at his enemy. _You were wrong_, he thought,_ when you said that lightning couldn't protect anything or anyone. It feels like it's been so long. Sure, lightning just strikes and fades away. And yeah, it can feel kind of random and unpredictable. Just like… just like what you just did now_.

_I don't know what to say to you, except… _

_Thanks… Light. Thank you so much_.

But just as Lightning prepared to summon her own power to support his energy field, a blast of electrical discharge from an unknown source blinded both of them, and her eyelids shut involuntarily. Before Hope could ask her what had happened, Lockdown suddenly retreated, his hooked arm abruptly broken into two pieces of metal. They crashed to the ground. The Decepticon minion bellowed in trauma and disbelief and staggered back, removing his pressure against the forcefield in the process.

_Something made him retreat_, thought Lightning to herself.

Surprised but relieved by the sudden good fortune, Hope allowed himself a brief rest as he ended his spell. The field of power dissipated above them, scattering into the wind. His palms and fingers were trembling, and large boils had appeared under his gloves because of his exertion. _But when did these get there_? he wondered in panic. He winced as the stinging registered in his brain, but Lightning quickly took his hands in hers, and that alone assuaged the throbbing somewhat.

"**I seem to have made a timely arrival. But Mjolnir's intervention was even timelier. I thought you would find my assistance useful**," boomed a newcomer to the battle.

Still supporting Hope and keeping a gentle hold on his hands, Lightning looked up in the direction of the baritone voice, which was filled with an almost holy intensity. It actually sounded like rolling thunder. It came from a floating being wearing a helmet with miniature, ornamental feathered wings. The hovering man was outstandingly handsome, with flowing, rich blond hair that seemed to shine like the sun itself. He had piercing eyes of frosty ice blue, eyes that told of an eternal winter with beautiful Valkyries and goddesses of snow and rime. His clean-shaven face was generous and broad, weathered by northern winds and warmed by the fireplace of divinity. Forged in the furnace of courage and martial discipline, his physique was impossibly well built, with sculpted muscles that seemed to ripple from his body. Like a coiled spring, his strong frame was covered almost completely in silver armour, but that did not stop his broad torso from pressing against the black cloth around his lusty trunk. He clutched a warhammer with a short handle, and its metal head seemed to rumble and shine with a supernatural, flowing current of electricity.

A current of lightning…

"So _that's_ what hit Lockdown," muttered the l'Cie woman, whose name reflected the blond man's domain of influence. In the immediate distance, the growling of a coming storm could be heard.

"Thanks for helping us. But… who are you?" asked Hope, his voice grower quieter by the minute.

"**I am Thor**," came the simple reply. "**Thor Odinson of Asgard, and of the Avengers**."

* * *

Somehow, from the moment they saw him, they already knew what he _was_, even if they didn't know his name until now. Perhaps intuitively, Lightning and Hope realized that they were looking into the eyes of a mighty deity once worshipped by humans.

"**Let the worlds thunder with the glory of Asgard, city of the gods**!" roared the elemental god. Electricity suddenly manifested from nowhere and encircled him like a serpent, crackling around his magical hammer as the skies growled their support for him. "**Thor Odinson is here**!"

Lockdown stepped back, his face growing even angrier. "How dare you steal my arm. You're going to pay," he hissed, but Thor ignored him, aggravating his temper further.

"Thor…" repeated Hope. He almost stumbled, but found safety in Lightning's arms again.

Thor looked down at the l'Cie, and his deep voice was urgent. "**Come, woman and child… you who are not of Earth. With this planet's leaders incapacitated, it falls upon their allies to act! Although we have not been acquainted formally, you and I are now comrades. Such is the nature of war**."

Lightning nodded, dumbstruck.

"**At least tell me your name**," prompted the Asgardian deity.

"Claire… Claire Farron," muttered the female warrior. "But you can call me Lightning."

Thor raised a stern eyebrow, revealing the aurora borealis dancing in his irises. "**A namesake that matches my domain of influence. Perhaps you and I are fated to stand together. And you, boy**?"

"Hope," said Lightning's companion eagerly. "Hope Estheim."

"**Hope? An unusual word to be gifted with**," observed Thor, smiling for the first time, "**but a true gift of a word. May your courage embody your name **– "

"Watch out!" screamed Hope suddenly, his expression of admiration changing to one of horror.

The Norse god grunted as a missile slammed into his back, enveloping him in toxic smoke and fumes. He recovered quickly, however, and glared at the culprit who had initiated the attack. He waved aside the pollution with a brisk hand, hurtling from the smog and flying towards Lockdown, who had fired his long-range weapon from the cannon attached to his remaining arm. "That will teach you to ignore me," cackled the injured robot.

"**Treacherous coward**!" barked Odinson, raising Mjolnir.

A furious Lockdown fired another missile, but Thor suddenly gathered speed and hurtled into the projectile, smashing Mjolnir against it. Another explosion blotted out the sky, and out from the scattering shrapnel careened Thor, aiming directly for Lockdown. The Decepticon blanched incredulously. How could the toxic payload not have any effect on the flying man? But it was too late for any questions. Steadying his divine warhammer, Thor reached his attacker and punched a clean hole through the Decepticon's chest, crushing his internal system, snuffing out his spark, and flying out from his punctured back. The Cybertronian gave a shocked groan, his body crackling with lightning. He couldn't even curse Thor before falling on his knees and slamming into the ground, crushing several deactivated drones in the process. His systems had been overloaded. He had been short-circuited by Mjolnir, and his metal body was helpless against the powerful surge of electricity that Thor had sent through him.

In one wrathful strike, the Decepticon that nearly took Hope's life was dead by the hand of Asgard's champion.

"His strength… can drive those Cybertronian drones back," said Hope, his green eyes widening in awe.

Blazefire Saber, which had previously been stuck in Lockdown's arm, had fallen to the ground, and the Asgardian divinity nodded towards it. "**That belongs to you, I believe. Take it back – you will need it**." His cape and long hair billowed in the wind as the horizon of the Japanese nation began to teem with legion upon legion of drones, transported from Cocoon via Dysley's spacebridges. "**I apologize, children. But I ask that you hold the line with me here. Our lives will be the ransom for this nation's safety**."

Lightning nodded slowly. "You're going to protect humanity with your life."

Thor nodded silently, mirroring the solemn mood.

She closed her eyes in grudging respect. "If only I could have faith in the people I fought for, like you. I've been beginning to wonder what it might've been like to live on Earth instead of Cocoon."

"**A long time ago, I was worshipped by a civilization whose people lived their days as if they would die at night. That was the age the children of the Allfather walked the forests, groves, mountains, and mines of Earth. Since the extinction of my people's culture, Asgard has withdrawn from the spiritual consciousness of human beings. But I still cannot stand by and watch innocents suffer the madness of evildoers**."

Thor did not look at Lightning, although he continued to address her. "**It is true that I do not know the story of your struggle. Perhaps you can tell me later. But in this new war, you and I both are aware of the responsibility that comes with our gifts. Let that be your burden. Embrace it. You have little choice**."

"You wouldn't understand. I have been cursed as well," cried Lightning. She had picked up Blazefire Saber, but her free hand yearned to clasp Hope's shoulder. "You obviously know what you're doing. But not all of us are saints."

"Wait, Light. He never said he was a saint. He's a god of war protecting Earth. He's got his own questions too," broke in the l'Cie boy. He stared up at his companion, who couldn't bring herself to look away. "He's right, even if we can't admit it right now. We have to fight on. If nothing else, Light… I can promise you," he stammered, unable to say anything except a cliché, "I'll stand with you until the very end, until we _do_ find our answers. I'm glad I could fight with you… _for_ you."

He blinked in surprise as her hand slapped him around the head lightly. "Ouch…?"

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, as if he had said something stupid. "Don't go all _final battle_ on me. No one is laying a finger on you."

He lowered his head bashfully, nodding.

With that out of the way, Lightning turned to Thor. "Fine. I'll fight with you. But will you help me keep the bow safe?" she asked him.

"**My honour and conscience demands it**," said the square-jawed god, who seemed satisfied by the outcome of their conversation. He raised his hammer, preparing to summon a thunderstorm as Lightning activated her Grav-con Unit. She bent her legs slightly, preparing to sprint at her foes. The heavens growled, and bolts of lightning began to pierce through, striking the Cybertronian ground forces and short-circuiting the drones they hit.

"**Fight with me**," smiled Thor, his irises glowing with glacial light.

With grey clouds and sheets of electricity gathering above them, the woman, boy, and god hurled themselves at the Decepticon army.

* * *

"The world is experiencing the overlay of the mass planar spacebridge. The American and Chinese militaries have been disabled with a worldwide, electromagnetic blast from Trypticon," echoed Shockwave's cold, mechanical voice. The heartlessly logical Decepticon's cyclopean optic flashed yellow as he left his station, a powerful supercomputer that relayed to him the progress of Earth's occupation. Across the digital map flashed the purple lights of Decepticon strike teams, supported by PSICOM agents who seized Earth's silos before they could be used to defend against Megatron's armies.

"Let me see the globe," demanded the voice of Megatron.

Shockwave enlarged the green map on his screen, configuring the supercomputer to replace the purple displays with indications of where the spacebridges had been opened. Almost the entire world, aside from the North and South Pole, was covered in sickly yellow.

"Good," thundered the Decepticon leader's voice. "Good!"

"The PSICOM Wardens have found the American president's bunker while his brainwashed aides hunt down the remaining dissenters. Europe has fallen, and it is only a matter of time before the Asian realms are disarmed. The nations of humanity are in chaos, just the way you wanted. Now we must deal with their superheroes."

"Our time is now. Throw all our forces at the resistance. I do not care for their lives, even if they are defeated. As long as Cocoon remains, the world will know our crushing embrace," declared Megatron, tapping a finger on the armrest of his cold throne. "It seems that we have attracted the attention of not only Galaxy Force, but the gods of Asgard."

"Yes, but they have suffered massive casualties as well. We've unleashed an inter-dimensional army of drones that are keeping their champions occupied. Our concern is not Loki, or even their Allfather. Even Thor Odinson will not be able to save the entire planet from our forces before the overlay is complete. The rate of transference is already reaching ninety-four percent, and with Earth's peacekeepers disassembled, complete ownership of Earth is only a matter of one more space-cycle."

"Well done, Shockwave. Unlike that worm Starscream, the loyalty you have for me is unquestioning. It is rational, coherent, and comes naturally to you. That loyalty is the kind that all beings will now realize for me."

Sitting on his specially constructed throne, Megatron smiled at nothing, his blood-red optical sensors smouldering. The crimson light seemed to taint his helmet and the Decepticon emblem on his broad chest. It had been a long journey, one that required much preparation, coercion, and brainwashing. Jihl was only one example, deluded into a false cause and even falling into infatuation with an Emperor who despised organic beings. Cid Raines of the Guardian Corps, however, had been an inconvenience, and Megatron planned to execute all the Sanctum authorities once the overlay completed itself. Earth's corrupt leaders would be of no use, either. Even personalities like Doctor Doom planned on allying with the Autobots for the sake of preserving the planet from Megatron's evil.

"Why did you even bother with Galaxy Force, Prime?" he murmured to himself complacently. "What did you expect to achieve with these immature, inexperienced fighters? Their disparate origins are only the beginning of their imperfections. You are trying to bring together lost children who were forsaken long ago. Where your Autobots will fail once again, I will succeed once more, by unifying the three realms that hold all our destinies. The universe will know one will, one life that belongs to me. Nothing else matters anymore. You have known nothing like Megatron, and you will never know anything that could ever match me."

The Decepticon commander lifted a regal, stately hand, giving an unusual and chillingly calm smile. "Go, Soundwave. Fly out with the forces of the Sanctum… let the fal'Cie eat their fill on Earth. Show our enemies what it means to accept defeat and be whole in despair and submission.

"_End_ their feeble disobedience."

* * *

Galacta's eyes were closed. Garbed in her outrageous purple armour, she was meditating, trying to sift out the crying voices from the planet below. Within a few seconds, she could see Lightning, Hope, and Thor, struggling grimly against the emotionless, fearless Decepticon drones. "It's a surreal battlefield down there – a bit of Cocoon and Gran Pulse mixed with the landscape of Earth. I can barely believe it myself." Galacta pursed her lips. "I've never seen anything like it, and coming from a nigh-omniscient being, that's saying something. Beasts from Gran Pulse are everywhere, wreaking havoc across the human nations with PSICOM's forces… we need a decisive turnaround to this battle if we're going to push them back."

Prime turned around from Teletraan One to face her, his expression grim. "It's not looking good, is it? Every team is already stretched thin, from my Autobots to the Avengers and the X-Men. Galaxy Force is only able to project so much power across the world because of you, Gallie."

"Send me out, Optimus," said Galacta, looking up at him earnestly. The stars of the universe flared in her glittering irises. "Megatron's attack isn't something that can be contained by Earth's heroes. You'll need a primal, elemental force to eat up these monsters and madmen. You'll need me to clean up the alien trash."

Prime nodded. "Okay. You're right. Bring Claire and Hope back first. I'm going to brief them with a plan of attack that will combine all our strengths together."

Galacta paused for a moment, raising her gauntleted hands as purple lights twinkled from her palms. "I need to make sure the blond Asgardian isn't going to fight on his own. Let's see… who's free to replace those two?" she mused, her closed eyes scrunched in concentration. "No problem! I'll just send Cyclops and Emma to Beijing. That should keep them busy." A loud sound resembling a clap of thunder echoed throughout the control hall of Orbital Terminus, and Lightning and Hope appeared before Galacta in a blaze of violet fire. They looked exhausted, and bruises and cuts had left their mark over their bodies and clothes. Hope glanced around, bewildered and disoriented at being teleported out of battle and back into the safety of the space station.

"Huh?" he mumbled numbly. "Weren't we just – "

"Why did you take us back here?" yelled Lightning, angered. She was still clutching Blazefire Saber looking as if she had been about to swing it. Her arms were tense and sweating with the adrenaline from battle. "Thor still needs our help. Bring us back!"

"I'm sorry for doing this so abruptly," apologized Prime. "I know you must feel confused. But we're going to win this fight, and if we're going to win, we need a direction, a plan of attack. We can't let Megatron keep us guessing and on the back foot anymore."

"Don't worry. As you already know, Thor is much more than a mere man. And he won't be alone," said Galacta. "I've tagged you out with two of the X-Men. My teleportation powers will be quite handy while Optimus micro-manages the hotspots around this blue planet."

Hope glanced up at the towering Autobot. "Optimus," he whispered.

"I've contacted Stark Industries on a private frequency and asked their private guards to protect the surviving leaders of Earth. Tony Stark and James Rhodes are on the move. Iron Man and War Machine will soon be entering the field. But there isn't much time left. The Decepticons have begun to move and we have only one option – an attack on Megatron's base of operations. It's obvious he's built one up there on Cocoon. Without a tactical strike on the capital of Eden, it's only a matter of time before Earth falls before their forces," said Prime, as he deployed his close-quarters weapon, an Energon-powered double-handed axe with a white-hot edge. The meaning of his words was clear. "Get ready for an all-out attack on that floating continent. I'm sorry, Hope. But we have to make a strike against your home, the home that you left when you fell through the bridge of light. We're going to fight on two fronts – the three of us will play offence," he said, nodding at the l'Cie. "And Galacta will play defence."

"How?" asked Lightning.

Prime looked down at the beautiful daughter of Galactus. "Galacta. You still feel like meeting and eating fal'Cie, don't you?"

"Are you kidding me, big bot? I'm always hungry," chirped Galacta. "I'm up for some fal'Cie goodness anytime."

"Then I want you to target the fal'Cie. There are countless individual fal'Cie on Cocoon and Gran Pulse. If you can consume all the ones attacking Earth along with their crystals, you'll probably have consumed enough energy to equal a small planet, or at least several continents. That's how powerful – and nutritious – fal'Cie are."

Galacta shrugged, grinning. "That sounds like a tasty plan to me."

"Lightning and Hope, you'll find your l'Cie friends first. Stay together. Don't get distracted by the Decepticons until you're reunited. Then join forces with my Autobots. Stop PSICOM and their remaining leaders. Other than those, I don't have any specific orders." His optics glinted. "As for me, I'll take Megatron on. I'll attack his base on Eden and find out just what has happened to his captives," growled Prime. "And I'm going to save Osborn and Fury as well as the others… if they're still alive."

He gazed down at his diminutive humanoid friends. "I'm faithful… no, I _know_ we'll pull through this. It honours me that I can protect Earth with you. This coming storm is why I knew Galaxy Force would be needed – to protect the dignity of freedom, unity, and friendship. All of you – well done and good luck."

Reassured, Lightning placed a caring hand on Galacta's shoulder, and the latter gave a flattered, inappropriate giggle. The mood was tense but glad. It was as if Prime had formed Galaxy Force just to bring together individuals who would otherwise be lonely drifters. That alone warranted gratitude from each member, who had found friendship in each other despite the many questions that lingered.

Hope nodded and grinned up at the Autobot leader. "Optimus," he called, "thanks for taking us in. When we find the other l'Cie, maybe you can let them join our team? Oh, and Thor, as well?"

Prime seemed to like those ideas. "After this is all over, I'm looking forward to seeing who would want in with us."

* * *

"_I. Am. The. Potentate_."

In the darkness of his sanctum on Cocoon, Megatron's wicked voice was shuddering in triumph as his new continent and Gran Pulse overlaid themselves onto the quaking planet of Earth. It was done. His long-awaited, painstakingly planned victory was nigh, and not even Optimus Prime could hold back his unstoppable momentum. Through Galenth Dysley's mass planar spacebridge came the fal'Cie and the forces of the Sanctum. Earth's leaders were either murdered by PSICOM's assassins, brainwashed by Soundwave's technology, or in hiding. The thunder of Cybertronian guns echoed across the blue-green planet, and the purging of humanity would now be complete.

The feelings boiling within felt beautiful.

Jihl Nabaat and Dysley had fulfilled their duties perfectly. Jihl had already fulfilled her purpose, and as beautiful as she was, Megatron was happy to let his organic minions to do as they pleased with her. He was interested to see how her twisted character would enjoy being raped and strangled to death. He was also aware of Dysley's true nature and his desire to unite with Orphan, but that did not concern him. Barthandelus' transformation was of little consequence, since the Sanctum fal'Cie had all marked themselves for death in the name of the Maker. As long as Orphan was sacrificed to fuel his forces moving against Galaxy Force, he would not interfere.

"This solar system is my new palace, and it shall be unified with our metal castle, Cybertron. The spires of our home will see the new dawn of a universe that is nothing but Megatron. Free will is an unnecessary luxury, a trifle that plays no role in evolutionary progress. I will have the power of Orphan in me. Richard Reed and Victor Von Doom could not stop me. That I hold the Ultimate Nullifier is proof enough. To Barthandelus and Orphan, I might as well be the Maker. No, I _am_. I _am_ the Maker beyond good and evil. I am the creator of Cybertron's empire! All powerful. All seeing. All conquering! Now, and forever."

The Decepticon leader grinned viciously as the full might of his followers was poured out upon the Earth. He slowly raised his hand to his face. "_When I clench my fist and shatter the worlds_…"

"I will protect you all with my life," murmured Prime, gripping his two-handed axe tightly.

"_When I make you crawl before my feet, only to trample you into dust_…"

"I will drive back that mad robot with the strength of a billion suns," affirmed Galacta, the Power Cosmic shimmering in her irises.

"_When I make your loved ones my playthings, robbing you of all reasons to fight_…"

"We'll stand together as friends. No matter what happens to each of us," swore Hope.

"_And when I pulverize the physical fabric of your homes and temples, and condemn your children to an impossible future_…"

"We'll make the impossible possible," snarled Lightning, raising her gunsword into the air as her teammates let out a determined warcry. "That's our Focus from now on," she declared, looking at the boy beside her, the robot looming over her, and the woman across from her.

"Well said, Claire," exclaimed the Autobot leader. Galacta grinned happily, and Hope's fists clenched in resolve.

Suddenly, Lightning realized that her time on Earth hadn't been that long. It had been even longer since she found the capacity to trust others again. But despite all her doubts and concerns, she now cared deeply for her new comrades, both within and beyond Galaxy Force. She liked how Prime put it: she, too, would protect each and every one of them with her life.

Especially Hope.

_Especially_ him.

"_Unite the three worlds under my banner! Decepticons, show no mercy_!" snarled Megatron.

"Let's go. Galaxy Force, roll out!" cried Optimus Prime.

Nothing like this had ever occurred before. And nothing like this would ever happen again.

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: "ARISE, HERALD OF GALACTA!" **

**The daughter of Galactus joins the fray against Megatron's hordes! Who has she chosen to be her new champion?**


	4. Chapter 4: The Galacta Event

Earth is trembling under the foot of Megatron, who has launched an ambitious new plan to enslave the organic planet of Earth with the combined forces of Cocoon and the Decepticons. His conquest was meticulously planned, beginning with the theft of the Ultimate Nullifier, the most powerful weapon in the universe. He brainwashed the Sanctum's commanders and seduced the fal'Cie with promises of fulfilled dreams before targeting Earth's most influential leaders for ruthless assassination. As the interplanar spacebridge was finally completed and unleashed upon the human world, Megatron allowed the fal'Cie to engineer their self-destruction, leaving him as the supreme ruler of Cocoon. Through his treachery, Megatron has now reached a state of godhood.

But the world of humans and superheroes will not be crushed without a fight.

Alliances have been formed and continue to form. Lightning has found renewed resolve and trust in her comrades. Brought out of her solitude by Hope's almost amusing optimism and boyish bravery, she has found the strength to believe in Optimus Prime's plan to save the world. She has discovered faith in Galaxy Force's strongest member, Galacta, who will serve as the final line of defence and the team's trump card. And most importantly of all, she has found the power within herself to swear an oath. That oath is to protect her comrades with the same selflessness as Prime. It is to offer up her life in the name of hope itself.

To sacrifice everything for Hope…

Claire Farron grasps her gunblade as Earth's factions mobilize for war against the Decepticons. She may die, but like real lightning, she never expected to last long in the world – she is simply a flash of light in the backdrop of a dark sky, striking once and then fading away forever.

But if she is going to strike only once, she is going to make sure Megatron suffers the full shock of her strength.

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Galacta Event**

This world – or these worlds – was all too confusing to a simple man like Snow. He preferred bravado, cussing in the midst of battle, and summoning his beloved Shiva sisters to kick Sanctum arse. But this pandemonium, this confusion, this sheer absurdity - it was simply too much for him. "Creatures from Gran Pulse? What are they doing here, too?" he cried, pausing briefly in his brawl against a PSICOM Warlord. Fang spun and impaled a charging Enforcer, glaring at a Warden that attempted to tackle Vanille. But the body of Snow's Warlord crashed against him, and the two officers sprawled along the pavement painfully.

"Hide, chocobo!" shouted Sazh. His expert gunmanship was more than enough to take out two PSICOM officers that flanked him. He crossed his arms, firing up and sending an oversized bird of prey crashing to the ground. "You're staying with me until I find my son. Stay together, everyone!" he cried.

"Easier said than done. Some outside help would be helpful," snarled Fang. Her beautiful face was etched with frustration. "Do you know what I hate most? When I wake up and I'm suddenly fighting in a different world for no apparent reason. And where are the guardians, the stewards of this land? I think it's pretty poor form for no one to notice what's going on here – "

"Fang, duck! Behind you!" warned Vanille suddenly, and Fang cursed as a funnel of wind threw her off-balance. She tumbled along the ground, but threw her body into a roll and used the momentum to leap back up. Glancing into the sky, she found herself staring at a red and yellow suit of armour that seemed to be…

Alive.

It aimed an open hand at the advancing Sanctum troops and released an azure blast of energy from the humming, glowing circle on its palm, and the resulting shockwave hurled back the entire division of dazed troopers. Fang glanced to her side, confused as a grey and black counterpart to the flying suit of armour joined the fray, aiming its shoulder-mounted gattling cannon at the charging Guardian Corps and exchanging a flurry of bullets with the Sanctum infantry. It raised its arm, shooting a missile into the shocked throng of soldiers before hovering with its partner back-to-back.

"Report to Lord Megatron!" cried one of the Enforcers, his voice garbled in pain. "We have two… new unidentified targets!" He could say no more as Vanille's fire spell crushed his lungs and threw him against the leg of a mindless drone.

"Who are you two?" blurted Sazh, as he dispatched another looming beast with several well-aimed shots to the head. There wasn't even enough time to be shocked.

"We'll worry about that later. A world is forcing itself onto ours and you're worried about who I am?" replied the red and yellow suit. No, it wasn't the armour that was speaking. It was clearly a man, for the tone of his voice conveyed subtle emotions that no armoured suit was capable on its own. "This isn't the time for introductions."

"Tony," said the black-and-grey suit of armour, much to Vanille's fright. "Your repulsor ray and my uranium blast. Together."

"Good call, Rhodey." The two suits raised their hands, and a high whining buzz pierced the air as a spherical forcefield surrounded them. A massive shockwave radiated outward from the epicentre of the two battlesuits. The PSICOM invaders screamed as a miniature mushroom cloud from the black-grey suit's arm cannon engulfed them in ashen smoke. Its brighter counterpart's hand glowed with azure light, finally generating a pulsing wave of energy that threw aside the first wave of advancing creatures, scattering them and turning the tide of chaos in the l'Cie's favour.

"This is a good show," admitted Fang, observing the renewed pandemonium that had overtaken the attacks. "We could use their help." She spun her staff and impaled a charging warrior, casually slipping past the stream of blood that shot from his stomach.

"Oi! So you tin men fighting them or fighting _with_ them? I guess it's the first choice," yelled Snow, pointing at the teeming hordes of creatures in the backdrop of Paris.

"What does it look like?" came the sarcastic reply. "The name's actually Iron Man, but you can call me Tony if you want." Iron Man blew off the head of a cyclopean Decepticon with his repulsor ray before shooting away nimbly, meeting a Sanctum beast with another powerful blast. "Let's go, Rhodey? Or should I call you War Machine, for the benefit of our guests?"

"Whatever you feel like." War Machine raised his fists, riddling another looming creature with gushing holes of blood. He turned around, dodging the swipe of a Decepticon drone and firing a hail of missiles into its chest. It reeled and collapsed against its teammates. "We'll keep whittling away at their numbers. You guys break the deadlock!"

Snow nodded awkwardly. "Fair deal, dude in metal." He looked at Fang and Vanille. "What are we waiting for?" he cried. "Let's take them down!"

"Let's go, Vanille!" cried Fang. Vanille nodded eagerly, clenching her fists.

"Hold tight, chocobo!" cried Sazh. "It's going to be a rough ride up there!"

As the l'Cie split up to push back the horde that was closing in from all directions, Iron Man and War Machine remained in the air, stemming back the tide of Decepticon drones and PSICOM armies with their advanced weapons systems. Explosions rattled the pride of France, but ultimately, Paris would endure the onslaught of Cocoon and Gran Pulse. For the sake of the city of love, the heroes would not break.

"I gotta get me one of those suits," whispered an inspired Snow to himself, as he knocked out a Warden with a swinging haymaker.

* * *

The time had come.

Galacta had teleported Prime, Lightning, and Hope into the devastated city of Berlin, above which lurched the continent of Cocoon like a sickly, dangling spider. The offspring of Galactus sat on Prime's shoulder as the Autobot stood behind the two l'Cie, looking out at the enemies that surrounded them. "So they've come to personally deal with us," said Optimus, staring into the eyes of the fal'Cie for the first time. There were nine of these godlike beings, and some of them were not from Gran Pulse, but the Sanctum.

"So what are the names of these scrumptious dishes?" Galacta closed her eyes. The cosmic force was dressed in snazzy jeans and a green tank top, and she looked awfully out of place – which was the point of the whole façade. "I see," she whispered. "Their names are Eden. Phoenix. Carbuncle. Kujata. Anima. Atomos. Bismarck. Titan. Dahaka. And they all want to kill us."

"Anima," whispered Lightning, staring into the eyes of the creature that had branded her, made her and Hope into outcasts. They towered over the l'Cie, the intended puppets for the remaking of their world. But now, everything had fallen apart, and so had their hopes and dreams. All that was left was to pull everything else in creation along with them in a vortex of destruction and self-hate. "They're all here. Are you sure you can beat them all, Galacta?"

"Honestly, I think we're in for a beating," muttered Hope.

"Do you have that little faith in me?" asked Galacta, upset.

"Galacta's right. Don't say that," snapped Lightning hastily. For some reason, she felt more comfortable with her own trepidation than Hope's. "We made a promise together, didn't we? We'll blow these fal'Cie back to their master and kick fate to the curb."

"The aberrations are here. Let us kill and be killed, so that Ragnarok may come upon us and bring the Maker to not simply Cocoon, but the worlds beyond that have been revealed to us by Lord Megatron," declared Eden, the fal'Cie who was nothing less than a triune reflection of the Maker. He was the most imposing of them all, each of whom smiled emotionlessly at Galacta. But she was completely unafraid. She simply smiled, looking back and forth at the gathered enemies.

"And I can sense too well who would be leading these fal'Cie… _Soundwave_!" roared Prime suddenly. "Galacta!"

"Way ahead of you." Galacta indifferently raised her hand, willing into an existence an invisible forcefield that enveloped the four teammates in a spherical dome. Hope and Lightning looked at each other in surprise, but they soon knew why. Several plasma shots had been aimed at Prime's head, but they dissolved harmlessly the moment they entered the field of energy. Lightning stared in the direction of the plasma as a Decepticon lumbered into sight, walking past the fal'Cie called Anima. He was predominately dark-blue, and shared with Prime a faceplate across the mouth region. Across his broad chest was the wicked, unmistakable emblem of the Decepticon faction. His optical sensors focused themselves on the Autobot leader emotionlessly.

"That's Soundwave?" asked Hope tensely. "One of the top Decepticon brass, hey?"

"Soundwave. Eradicating Earthen hindrances," said the Decepticon field agent, pointing his finger coldly down at Lightning. "Ravage. Deal with the fleshbeings." And at his command, an aberration pounced forth over his shoulder – a metal panther with hateful, primal red optics, and teeth that could shred titanium like soaked paper. Prowling in a circle around Lightning and her friends, Ravage let out an eager growl, challenging them to battle.

"You know the plan," said Galacta, standing up. She hovered into the air and closed her eyes as Prime, Lightning and Hope lunged at Soundwave. The Decepticon was not afraid of three against one, and he raised his fist, aiming ominously at Hope. A powerful electromagnetic pulse emanated from his hand, and Prime rolled out of the way as Lightning and Hope split away from each other, spinning in the air and diving toward Soundwave. Lightning aimed her gunblade directly at the Decepticon's face, but cried out as Ravage's heavy, Cybertronium body slammed into her. Winded, she felt a rib crack against the metal paw of the robotic beast, and she felt her back skidding painfully along the ground as Ravage snapped wildly at her face. Not wanting to lose her nose, Lightning planted a boot against Ravage's stomach and kicked roughly, loosening the creature's grip briefly before blocking his ferocious snapping with her sword. She struggled furiously against the pressure, but eventually managed to kick Ravage off her.

"Don't worry about me," she roared, noticing Hope's hesitation. He had already conjured an ice spell, but he was about to turn his back on Soundwave and throw his rime blast at Ravage. "Watch your own back!"

Hope nodded, regaining himself. "You got it!" he cried, as he met Soundwave's laser blast with his rime stream. Ice and proton energy collided and engulfed the two combatants even as Lightning continued to fight a grim duel with Ravage.

Meanwhile, Galacta glared at the fal'Cie surrounding her. "A buffet," she said, licking her lips and raising her arms. Suddenly, her clothes began to shine and slowly disappear into thin air, revealing a naked body that was just as quickly beginning to be concealed by materializing purple armour. A peculiar symphony of beeping and tinkling filled the air as she changed her outfit in plain sight. A tall, purple helmet with extraterrestrial ornamentation slowly encased her head, taming her lush, smooth black hair. Her slender legs and feet were gradually hidden by a set of tall, shapely boots. Her shoulders remained bare as a set of torso armour and gauntlets covered what remained of her exposed body. Her pupils shone with violet fire, and she sneered at the fal'Cie as her fists ignited with cosmic energy.

"Let's go," she whispered.

"You will die," declared Eden, as Phoenix vomited out a deafening torrent of fire against her and Kujata conjured a massive meteor and hurled it at Galacta's face. "You will die in Lord Megatron's name and be our sacrifice for the Maker. You will play your part in Ragnarok."

Galacta raised her left hand and destroyed the baking nova with her own summoned comet. She raised her right and called up a forcefield that blocked the torrent of fire, and flames lapped past as her eyes narrowed. "I don't think you really understand who's the sacrifice here," she snapped over the roaring, glaring at the fal'Cie. "_You're_ the sacrifices, alien creatures. You're all going to be sacrificed to my hunger. And I am _hungry_."

Hope glanced at Lightning as he ran past a hail of proton lasers from Soundwave's cannon. They riddled the ground with smoking craters, almost hurling him into the air. "Hey… does Galacta almost seem a changed woman?" The l'Cie warrior didn't have time to reply as Ravage snapped angrily at her legs, forcing her to somersault away and land several yards back to regain her balance. She deflected a swipe from Ravage's claws and slashed downward, forcing him to scramble back and leaving him to snarl uncontrollably, his back bent in hostility.

"Don't worry about her," shouted Lightning, pointing her sword at the Decepticon panther cautiously. Ravage was incredibly tenacious, and it was actually quite difficult to overpower him. "She knows what she's doing."

Galacta's eyes glinted as she kept up her hands, blocking a combined energy blast from Eden and Bismarck. She teleported away from Titan's strike and winked away from Atomos, but did not expect Eden to release another shaft of light, which punched into her body and sent her crashing back into a building. The block collapsed from the force, burying Galacta and pinning her into the ground. The fal'Cie moved into a circular formation, but the remains of the building were suddenly hurled into the air and thrown at the demigods, pelting them with heavy chunks of concrete and metal. A purple aura surrounded Galacta, whose telepathy was now assaulting the surprised fal'Cie. "Your tactics are child's play," she growled, as Anima suddenly lashed out at Phoenix and Bismarck tried to attack Eden. "If your minds can be so easily stolen by me, then your crystals sure don't stand a chance."

She cried out as a brutal blow from Titan and a focused spell from Dahaka smashed into her. She tumbled along the ground, narrowly slipping past another massive fireball and soaring into the sky. Her lithe body spun gracefully as she clenched her hands, preparing to end this annoying battle once and for all. Her purple armour was sizzling, and part of her boot had melted. "Come on, fal'Cie. What are you waiting for? Come and get me!" she barked, saliva trickling down her mouth. "I'm not going to hold back against alien beings that attack Earth! After all, they're the only legitimate source of food I need or want!"

Eden paused as the flying humanoid suddenly disappeared, vanishing from the grey skies that housed Cocoon. The girl was impressive, and admittedly very powerful. The fact that she could have lasted at all, especially so long, against a gathered assembly of Sanctum and Gran Pulse fal'Cie…

Perhaps they had underestimated her. Perhaps even Lord Megatron had underestimated her. "Where is she now…?"

Phoenix suddenly collapsed as Galacta reappeared in the material world and punched through the fal'Cie's body, reaching for the crystal that sustained the fal'Cie. Time seemed to slow as she let out a shrill cry of victory. "Yes! This is delicious! Let me have more – _all_ of it! Give yourself to me!" roared the daughter of Galactus, her hand coming into contact with the mystical stone. "_I hunger_!"

Soundwave paused, optics flashing in logical concern as Galacta hurtled through the dying Phoenix, before diving back down toward Anima and Kujata. She gritted her teeth, raising her hands and summoning a gathered burst of speed, wreathing herself in imperial purple starlight. Before Anima and Kujata could muster their own counterattack, Galacta had shot past them, and her hands seemed to be clutching immensely long purple threads that had latched themselves onto the fal'Cie. Like a cruel master pulling her dog's leash, she yanked, and Anima and Kujata let out incoherent groans as their crystals were brutally torn from their bodies. The large, translucent sources of power emerged from their shattered bodies and ripped backs and shot towards the thief. The purple luminosity rapidly spun around the stones and evaporated them into a gaseous matter, which was promptly sucked into Galacta's whirlwind of energy and absorbed into its new owner as casually as breathing in air. Galacta smiled as her four-armed machine appeared behind her and shone a quaternity of lights across the bewildered fal'Cie.

"You can't hide from me now."

"That was _badass_," whispered Hope to himself, almost forgetting that he was supposed to be fighting Soundwave. The Decepticon attempted to stomp on the boy and squash him into a bloody paste, but Prime's fist collided with his face, and before he could regain balance, The Autobot had drawn his ion blaster, firing a direct shot into his chest. The Decepticon tumbled back, managing to evade a strong haymaker from Prime and shooting him in the back. Prime fell down on one knee, but quickly deployed his Energon Axe and spun around, cleaving across Soundwave's torso with a mighty _screech_ that tore apart the injured Decepticon's chest. Circuits spilled out, and sparks danced out as Soundwave backed off weakly.

"You picked a poor fight to win!" roared Prime. "You won't conquer Earth so effortlessly with its heroes united."

"Advantage lost. Withdrawal necessary." The Decepticon field general beat a hasty retreat, transforming into an armoured truck and fleeing the city square, away from the Brandenburg Gate and the corpse of the Red Skull. The ever-watchful Ravage followed in his master's tracks, sprinting at astonishing speed and leaving Lightning behind without any hesitation. The panting l'Cie lowered her gunblade briefly even as she glanced at the fal'Cie, who were all occupied with the figure in the sky.

"That was abrupt," she muttered. "They probably just want to delay us from stopping the rest of the mass planar overlay. Or maybe it's because Soundwave couldn't win without the fal'Cie…?"

The Autobot leader lowered his arm. Megatron would suffer a nasty shock when Soundwave returned – he probably did not expect Prime to deploy Galacta so soon. At any rate, Galaxy Force and the other factions defending Earth now had more options. Although much of the world was still under Decepticon control, they could not take the fight to Cocoon – to Edenhall, and to the very throne of Megatron and Orphan. And that was extremely encouraging.

"Galacta! Finish them!" called the leader of Galaxy Force. "Don't hold back."

"None of you fal'Cie can catch up with my speed or my strength. None of you are as free as I am. None of you can hold a candle to my power," murmured Galacta in the heavens, unclenching her fists and spreading her arms. The machine behind her also mirrored her movements, expectantly whining for more converted nourishment. The fal'Cie could only watch in newly realized trepidation as the universal, semi-abstract being roared in exertion, bringing into existence a spherical ball of mysterious ion, which was rapidly growing to a size that dwarfed even the Reichstag. It was even beginning to reach for the bottom of Cocoon's landmass. A deafening crackling drowned out all other noises, as if nothing else had the right to exist except _this_.

"What is that?" gasped Lightning.

"It's probably her killer move or something," whispered Hope.

Galacta's low cry was growing louder and louder. "_Kaaaaameeee. Haaaaaameee_ – "

She paused innocently as she noticed Lightning and Hope's shocked glances on the ground. "What the hell is she talking about?" muttered Lightning.

"What have you been watching on Teletraan One?" sighed Prime, not bothering to hide his long-suffering expression.

"I liked that show, come on. Eh, whatever," said Galacta, shrugging, and without another word she hurled the purple pressure wave with full force at the fal'Cie below, engulfing them in white brilliance and swallowing them up, trapping them in a separate dimension from which she could devour them with no resistance. Earth trembled, and the ground shook as a massive earthquake began to tear apart the very foundations of Berlin. And at the epicentre were the fal'Cie. Only now did Lightning realize the ingenuity – even cruelty – of Prime's deal with Galacta. This event – the beginning of the Galacta Event – was something that had to be seen to be experienced.

"Impossible," murmured Eden quietly, whose consciousness was now denied. Those would be fitting final words. Had this battle been a dear mistake? Had Galacta even give them a chance? The fal'Cie's sigh of awe was their last breath as they were denied the chance of seeing their Maker. Megatron's promise had been an empty one. Their last thoughts would be of sore regret as Galacta's metaphysical maelstrom robbed them of their bodies, their minds, their crystals, and converted it into raw star energy for her to absorb, in a manner outwardly similar to photosynthesis. Galacta's vortex of incredible power devoured the remaining fal'Cie, denying them even a chance to think of their Maker as she raised a triumphant hand.

"Now, I claim my prize!" she screamed, as her four-armed instrument went into overdrive, whirring furiously as it sucked up the converted matter of the fal'Cie crystals. Tunnels of light danced up into the gloomy atmosphere, entering the four bright, round hatches and feeding Galacta with the power of the Maker himself. "This… _this_ is the nourishment I needed! My powers are reaching almost halfway! What a first! I've never felt this replenished before! But don't worry, fal'Cie," she laughed, her lips curling into a sadistic twist. Yellow and violet lights were spinning around her as she absorbed what were the remnants of Eden's crystal. "Your names… will live on in me for eternity, as my nourishment! How does it feel to be my food? How does it feel to be my cosmic poop? Humiliating? Terrifying, like how you marked innocents on Cocoon as l'Cie, Anima? Worry not," she whispered, hugging herself in ecstasy. "Thanks to eating you, I now know everything about your worlds. Your consciousnesses will soon dissolve within my cosmic furnace. Just enjoy the ride into oblivion while you can still hold on to your individuality."

Prime stared ahead grimly, but Hope was less prepared for this display. He stared an exultant Galacta, who was pulsing with replenished might. "That's… the same girl?" whispered the l'Cie youth. Nothing of the fal'Cie remained. Everything had simply disappeared. "It's just incredible."

"Incredible. And terrifying," noted Lightning, watching the terrifying force of nature that was Galacta, who burped quietly as she patted her stomach in a rare display of satisfaction.

* * *

Prime stepped forward, lowering his ion blaster. There was no trace of the fal'Cie left, only a crater that had swallowed the entire city square. "How do you feel, Galacta?" he said quietly. "I told you I wouldn't break my promise. I bet you've never felt this alive since you settled on Earth."

Galacta descended to the ground, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her armour was still burning and parts of her seared boots and gauntlets had been broken off, but it had been a negligible price to pay.

"You're a crafty one," she said, in response to Prime. "But still, you're right. I feel wonderful, and I owe all this to you. You took me in when no one else wanted a teammate who would want to eat them." She beamed through her chipped helmet, her eyes closing in joy. To Lightning's shock, a tear was making its way slowly down her cheek, and it was a trickle of elation, not sadness. "I feel really happy. To be able to have friends and to able to fight alongside mortals who wouldn't reject me – this is the existence I longed for. I wanted to be welcomed on Earth, even though I know it would be hard for so many. But I've found a family with all of you, and it's all because of Galaxy Force."

"I've never seen Galacta like this," said Hope, staring at her.

"Neither have I," admitted Lightning. It was strangely touching, to see the woman who made her so uncomfortable on Orbital Terminus confess such intimate feelings of camaraderie. Not that she intended to let her invade her personal space again, but on the whole, she was now quite sympathetic towards Galacta's constant dilemmas.

"Well… I guess it's time to make my own statement about all this." Galacta raised her hand, and Prime looked around at the purple flames that had suddenly encircled him. They came from Galacta's palm. "What are you doing, Galacta?" he cried warily, as he was surrounded in a violent pillar of shining light. The roar from the celestial lights drowned out his panicked voice.

Lightning and Hope gasped in shock. What was their comrade doing? What did she want with Prime? "Galacta!" roared Lightning, not daring to believe it but preparing for the worst. Her grip tightened reluctantly on the handle of her gunblade. "If for some crazy reason you were planning on betraying us – "

"Who said anything like that? I'm repaying Optimus," whispered Galacta in reply, although it was difficult to hear her voice amidst the rushing din of fire. The energy was not of any atomic structure known to lower beings, but drawn from the very Big Bang and Big Crunch. "Thanks to your plans and my nourishment from the fal'Cie, I've reached about forty-nine percent of my full power. It's time I did something with it, and the first thing I'm going to do is stack the odds in our favour. I'm going to give you, Optimus, a power beyond your wildest imagination. The power that I inherited from my daddy. The power that brought life to the stars in the universe before this one. The Power Cosmic!"

Prime let out a cry of surprise as the pillar around him, now as tall as a skyscraper, turned inwards, slamming into his body with a great _whoosh_ and suffusing him with a deep purple hue. He stumbled briefly, but instead of falling, he hovered slightly above the ground, no longer bound by gravity through mere will. His optics widened in impressed surprise. Hope let out another shout of amazement as Galacta lowered her hand. There was a grand grin on her face.

"Arise, Optimus Prime! Leader of the Autobots, and Herald of Galacta!" she cried.

"Herald?" whispered Hope.

"Well, I use the term loosely," said Galacta quickly, as Prime stared at his metal hands, which were shimmering with purple light. "Daddy has several of them who seek out worlds and dimensions for him to gobble up. He handpicked them from their home planets and gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. They're nothing more than tools to him. But that isn't the kind of Herald I want." She beamed again. "My Herald is my friend. With this, I've given you a fraction of my being. Molecule manipulation, restructuring of matter, telepathy and telekinesis, flight at the speed of light, and of course, sheer power. You're just more powerful than anyone else. That's really all there is to it. Use the Power Cosmic well, and you'll discover things not even privy to the Cybertronian race. And now it's your turn, Claire," she said suddenly, turning to Lightning. She clicked her fingers, and a flash of white light that engulfed her gunblade, blinding its wielder and forcing her to drop it. Lightning staggered back, her gauntlets scorched by the unexpected heat, and Hope ran to her side in alarm.

"What… what did you just do? What are you playing at?" she roared, her eyes throbbing in pain. "You're acting crazy."

"No. I'm just in a hurry. We've still got a lot of fighting to do, don't we?" Galacta nodded in the direction of three approaching Cybertronian jets. "Here come Starscream and his playmates. I've given you a gift for their sake. You'll like it."

Lightning was still trembling, her gloves slightly burned by the shimmering purple power that ignited her weapon. She gasped, looking down her new gunblade. The sword was different in shape, darker and sleeker with the colour of onyx and cool silver. Even the edge of the sword looked sharper, more curved. It was no longer the Blazefire Saber she knew. She looked up at Galacta. "What has your Power Cosmic done?" she asked in amazement.

"This is the Omega Weapon," revealed Galacta. "Why bother with anything else? By eating the fal'Cie, I now have full knowledge of the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse. It was easy identifying the paths your gunblade could take, and it was even easier calculating which would suit you best. Such a task is pretty easy for a semi-omniscient lady like myself, dear.

"I've been replenished," she said exultantly, lifting up her hand. "I've made Optimus my Herald, and given you and Hope your ultimate weapons. Use them. Have fun with them. Kick some butt with them. You'll need to," she added, looking outward at the Seekers flying toward them. "I think it's time we fought back every Decepticon that even tries to venture beyond Cocoon. What an irony that would be – trapped in their own fortress by Earth's defenders."

Lightning and Hope looked at each other, encouraged. Lightning gave a quick nod to Galacta, silently thanking her for the sudden upgrade. Together, she and her younger companion sprinted toward the growing shadows of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.

"I do have one more favour to ask, Galacta" came Prime's voice. He stepped forward, looking resplendently royal in his new state. "With your power, I'm going to fly up to Cocoon and bring down Megatron. I'm going to take the fight right to him and end it as quickly as possible. I want you to start consuming these invading worlds to pile up the pressure against him. If I haven't left Eden by the time you absorb it… don't hold back."

"You want me to eat Cocoon and Gran Pulse?" confirmed Galacta worriedly. "Even if… some parts of Gran Pulse have already merged onto Earth?"

"This event – the Galacta Event – must continue until Earth is safe," said Prime. "Ideally, I'll have beaten Megatron before you get around to doing that. But if I fall or if there's no other choice…" He lowered his head in resigned courage. "Do what you must to preserve what's left."

Galacta clasped her hands together, observing her much bigger teammate. "Optimus… I'll never forget what you did for me. I'll follow your orders to the last word. I'll follow _you_ to the end."

Prime smiled, looking up at the continent of Cocoon. "It all ends this day. Megatron must be stopped." He clenched his fists as the blue hue of optics suddenly began to turn purple. He allowed the Power Cosmic to seep through him, reanimating his Cybertronian limbs and advanced circuitry. With this newfound strength, he would lead his Autobots and Galaxy Force to ever-greater heights.

It was time to fly.

"Optimus Prime, Autobot Herald, commander of Galaxy Force. _Let's soar_."

Enveloped by crimson and cerulean energy, he shot into the sky, spinning towards the landmass of Cocoon and leaving the other members of Galaxy Force behind.

Galacta licked her lips as she was left alone. "First, I ate the fal'Cie. Now, by Prime's directives, I'm going to eat Cocoon and Gran Pulse as well. They don't belong on Earth, after all." She paused thoughtfully. "I hope Snow finds Serah soon, because I don't know how quickly I'm going to gorge myself. And…" Her violet eyes softened. "I hope Optimus can beat Megatron before I have to eat them along with the whole continent. What's a gal like me to do?"

She took a deep breath.

"But whatever Prime wants me to do, I _will_ do."


End file.
